A Different Kind of Light
by Whatamiwriting
Summary: Lucy met her Fairy Tail friends while in school and joins immediately. She realizes how much she needs to change before she can feel like a real member. LaLu with hints of others.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first stab at something like this so just be gentle. Manipulated some events to fit what I wanted to use so... just a heads up. **

Since many of the younger guild wizards have a knack for destruction of property, towns, and anything between, the magic council decided that wizards growing up had to go to school to learn properly before joining a guild. Lucy Heartfilia was homeschooled by her affluent father since her mother died. After learning a year ago that her father had been making plans to marry her off, she started training with her mother's gate keys as a celestial wizard. After she felt she was strong enough, she ran. Her destination? Magnolia. It was the home of the guild she wanted to be in once she finished the rest of her classes. The thought had crossed her mind that she would be behind because her father neglected to teach her anything magical, but she figured her independent studies caught her up enough.

Lucy stood at the front of the school an hour before classes started to straighten out paperwork with the office then headed to her first class: Guild History. She took a seat in the back, close to the window, and pulled out a mirror to ensure her blonde hair was still in place and her outfit looked fine. Students began filing in slowly, though most of the seats were still empty until a minute before class started. As the bell rang, ten more people ran through the door and filled the seats in around her. A pink haired boy with an open vest and white scarf was starting at her.

"Who're you?" he asked, none too kindly.

"Natsu!" A red haired girl dressed in armor reprimanded him and turned back towards Lucy, "What he means to say is hi, you must be new here, what's your name?"

Lucy giggled into her hand, "Hi, I just moved here. I'm Lucy Heartfi- I'm Lucy Heart." She stopped herself in case anybody reported her or tried to bring her home.

"Hi, Lucy, " the red-head said, "I'm Erza, that is Natsu," she pointed to the boy with the pink hair, "Gajeel," she pointed to a sullen black-haired boy with metal piercings on his face and arms, "Levy," a short girl with blue hair who smiled warmly, "Lisanna," a girl with white hair and bright blue eyes smiled and nodded to Lucy, "Gray," a boy with shaggy black hair and dark blue eyes nodded, "Jet and Droy," one with orange hair and the other with black waved, "Juvia," a girl with blue hair the same shade as her eyes narrowed them at her, "and now Cana," a girl with brown eyes, long brown hair, and what appeared to be a permanent blush on her face gave Lucy a comforting smile.

"Nice to meet you everybody, " Lucy smiled and sent a small wave to her new acquaintances, trying to commit their names to memory.

The teacher cleared his throat to begin the lecture, "Thank you for finally showing up, slackers. It's the first day; you could have at least tried to get here early. I see you have at least met the new student, Lucy, she will be here for the next two years, play nice." He began the lecture and Lucy tried to tune everything else out, but she still felt like somebody was staring, which was making her nervous. Her face betrayed her emotions and started to color while she surreptitiously glanced around her. Natsu was staring at her with his bottomless dark green eyes.

_Who is this girl?_ he thought to himself, _Wonder why she is here. Wow I'm really hungry. I hope Erza takes good notes I haven't listened to anything so far. I thought this was the first day, can we leave already? I wonder where Lucy is going after class. Will Master let her come to the guild with us? Let her join? She have family? I wonder how Happy is. Maybe I should check my backpack. I bet he wants some fish. Can I go now? Gah, I want to punch Gray in the face so badly. Why is Juvia staring at Gray? Is she sweating? Can I go now?_

"Can I help you," Lucy asked Natsu at the end of the class since his eyes had never left her face.

"Can I borrow your notes?" he asked with wide naive eyes.

Lucy put her hands on her hips and narrowed her chocolate brown eyes, "Really? You need my notes after you've been staring at me the entire class? That's why you didn't take any notes!"

Erza stepped in and put a hand over Natsu's well-muscled chest, "I can give him mine, please excuse him. Despite his schooling he still lacks all of his manners."

Lucy just shook her head.

"Are we going back to the guild now? I'm starving!" Natsu asked Erza as he unzipped his backpack. A small blue cat popped out and yelled, "Aye!".

"Wait, you guys are in a guild already? I thought you couldn't until you graduated. Aren't they the rules?" Lucy asked Erza.

"All of us joined before the rule came into play nine or ten years ago. We needed a home and Fairy Tail took us in. Became our home. Because we were accepted before the law, we were still allowed. We can go on one mission a month before we graduate. We just got back from one last week."

Lucy paled at this information, "You guys are all in Fairy Tail? Really? I've been wanting to get in since I was a little gir!"

"C'mon, Lucy! Come meet everybody else then you can join after you graduate. Or we can just make you a member anyway,' Natsu yelled.

She squealed in delight and jumped up and down, "REALLY!? That would be amazing!" While the boys were focused on her ample chest Erza only laughed.

"Sure, Lucy, we might be able to make an exception, Master is always taking in strays,"

Lucy had a troubled look on her face and Erza backpedaled, "Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?"

She looked thoughtful before answering, "No, I guess that's a pretty accurate description of me right now." _From debutant to stray, if only mom could see me now. _

"C'mon Lucy!" Levy hooked her arms through Lucy's and dragged her from the classroom. The school worked much like the intellectual colleges that non-magical folk attended and the group only had one class that day.

"I'm a solid script mage," Levy began, pushing her headband back into place, "and I'm trying to write a novel, Jet is super fast, Droy uses plant magic, Erza is a requip wizard, Gray is Ice Make wizard, Natsu is a fire dragon slayer, Gajeel is an Iron Dragon Slayer, Juvia uses water and IS water, Lisanna uses take over magic, and Cana uses card magic, and what about you?"

"I'm trying to write a novel, and I'm a celestial wizard," Lucy started.

"Oh really!? You have to let me read it! I'm sure anything you have is fantastic!"

Lucy smiled, "Are you guys always so nice to newcomers?"

"We're a family, most of us came from...some decidedly rough backgrounds. With all the troubles we have all had, we don't want anybody else to deal with that sorta thing, you know?"

She nodded in agreement and she and Levy dove into a deeper discussion about Lucy's novel. Before she knew it they were standing at the entrance of Fairy Tail. Lucy stopped in her tracks which caused the smaller girl to stumble, "Hey, Lulu, are you okay?"

"I've dreamed about this for YEARS. This has kept me going. I've always wanted to join Fairy Tail..."

Levy laughed at her new friend, "Well come on in, you can't enjoy anything out here, can you?" She pushed the door open and dragged Lucy inside.

The site that met her was unbelievable. Gray and Natsu had already started fighting which wrecked half of the tables and chairs. The rest of the guild had surrounded them to ensure they didn't spread the damage elsewhere.

"Do they do this all of the time?" she asked Levy in a whisper.

She answered with another laugh, "Yeah, they _are_ fire and ice. All they do is fight." Lucy nodded like it made sense to her and wandered further in. A beautiful wizard with long white hair was walking over to greet her. It was Mirajane, from almost every issue of Sorcerer Weekly. A blush crept through Lucy's cheek as she approached. _Oh my GOSH that is MIRAJANE!? I can't believe I'm meeting her, I've only been here a week! _

"Hi Levy! Hope class wasn't too hard today!"

"Never is," Levy answered brightly, "and we have a potential new member, her name is Lucy, a celestial wizard. I think she is going to fit right in!"

Mira turned her with a happy smile, "That sounds wonderful, let me get the stamp for you."

A gasp escaped her lips, "Is this really happening!? Somebody pinch me," Natsu wandered over after his skirmish and did just that, "Ow! What was that for!?"

"Duh, you asked me to," he said, dumbfounded that she was even upset.

Natsu was saved from a reprimand by Mira, who had finally returned with a stamp. Lucy held her hand out and Mira placed a pink stamp on the back of it. Lucy held it to her chest and held it there with tears in her eyes.

"Now you're part of the family!" Mira exclaimed.

"Aw, Lulu, c'mon its okay," Levy hugged her, unsure of why she was crying.

"Oh I'm sorry Levy, I've just wanted this for so long I can't believe it has actually happened!" Levy just hugged her harder.  
Lucy's eyes roamed around her new home and she saw a multitude of different wizards. Her eyes locked on a tall blonde with short hair and a lightning shaped scar on his face leaning on a railing encasing the second floor of the guild hall. She nudged Levy with her elbow, "Who is that up there?"

"Oh, That's Laxus. He is the master's grandson and a Lightning Dragon Slayer. He is an S-class wizard, super powerful. You don't want to mess with him." Her eyes stayed on his face as he surveyed his guildmates in the floor below him.  
_ How has Gramps let all these weaklings in? At least Mira went back to normal with Satan Soul. She was starting to disappoint everybody. And this newcomer? Scrawny blonde with a decent rack but it looks like she has no power at all. We start letting more weaklings in then we are gonna drop down in the rankings. Natsu could be powerful if he had any sort of direction, or intelligence. Same thing with Gray. All he does is fight with Natsu instead of actually strengthening himself. We are going to need a new hall in a few months if they don't calm the hell down. Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen better get back quickly. I'm sick of sitting around here I need a job. _  
When Laxus' eyes roamed over her a flush spread across her cheeks and her eyes were cast downward. "How old is he?" she asked Levy in a whisper.  
She tapped her chin with her finger in thought, "Maybe three or four years older than us I think. Not too much, though he made S-class the year he graduated, he is really strong. C'mon though, come meet everybody else!" While Levy introduced her to everybody else with Natsu and Gray by her side, all Lucy could think about was Laxus and his piercing sea-in-a-storm blue eyes.  
Laxus, in all his dragon slayer glory, heard the entire conversation. _So, Blondie might have a thing for me? She probably couldn't even punch a pillow. She might be fun for a one night run, but she is barking up the wrong tree. And that blush? She must have it bad._

Levy whispered into her ear, " You really want to stay away from him, he isn't a romantic, he isn't a relationship guy. He wants only power and will accept nothing less. Some of the strongest wizards, Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen, are in his team, the Thunder Legion. He never associates with anybody he doesn't deem worthy. You don't want to get on his bad side, or really any side of him."

"Hey, Lucy, come on over!" Levy released Lucy's arm and she walked over towards Natsu who was sitting with the rest of her classmates and joined in on their conversation. Thoughts of Laxus were washed away by the affection she was receiving. She had only been in Magnolia a short while but the people had already shown her she made the right choice.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own any of these characters  
I'm not following the timeline EXACTLY because it doesn't quite fit what I wanted to do.  
If anything offends you, sorry, this is an outlet for me to write as much as it is for you to read. Please enjoy but be gentle in any criticism. This is my first time publishing any written material. **

**If you're interested: I'm going to try and get content out every day or every other day. Excluding weekends. **

Two years had passed since Lucy moved to Magnolia. Two long and wonderful years. She was fully accepted into Fairy Tail and since it was graduation day, as soon as she left the ceremony she was going on a mission together with Natsu, Gray, Lisanna, Erza, and of course, Happy. Lucy was practically vibrating off of her chair she was so excited. Levy grabbed her arm, "Chill, Lulu! You get too excited you're never going to make it through the ceremony!" Lucy felt a blush color her cheeks.

"Right, right, sorry!" Levy only laughed at her while they waited for their names to be called.

"Lucy Heartfilia!" the Dean called her name and the crowd was filled with gasps. In the two years she was with the guild, nobody asked her about her parents or her heritage. Her heart dropped in her chest. There were no claps as she crossed the stage; nobody said a word. The Dean announced the rest of the names on the list to a muted audience. The entire guild was there, the Thunder Legion included. Lucy kept her head down until the end of the ceremony and when it was completed only Natsu and Happy were screaming with joy. Her feet carried her as fast as she could out of the building with tears streaming down her face. This was a huge secret she kept from them, one she couldn't even bear to think about.

With her eyes blurred by her torrent of tears she was blind to the rock in her path. She tripped and almost ended up head first in one of the canals that meandered through the streets of Magnolia. A strong arm wrapped around her midsection to stop her form her unintentional bath. After she recovered and wiped her eyes she looked up at her savior, the blond god from her first day at Fairy Tail, Laxus, was staring at her. She had only seen him once or twice during her time at the guild due to his constant supply of missions along with his own house.

"Th-Thank you," she murmured weakly before turning away and trying to run again. His hand on her upper arm stopped her before she could make any other moves.

"Gramps told me to make sure you were okay since I would be the quickest to get out here, so, Princess Blondie, what's the deal." He crossed his arms and looked down his nose at her.

Anger flashed across her face and poisoned her words, "Don't do me any favors, and don't call me that. That isn't me."

His lips curled into a sneer, "Whatever you say Princess, but you're coming back with me," he began pulling her back towards the school when Virgo suddenly appeared.

"Miss Lucy, you require assistance?"

"Yes, Virgo, please remove his hand."

"Yes, Miss Lucy." Then the spirit proceeded to remove Laxus' hand and throw him to the other side of the bridge. Lucy took that opportunity to run the rest of the way home, waiting until she was inside with a locked door before she let the tears flow again. _They were all so quiet… not even Levy said anything. Why didn't I tell them sooner? How could I have let this happen? Once again, thanks to my father, I'm alone. I should have just changed my name…I guess I'll start packing my things, find a new town… _

A knock on the door shook her from her reverie. "Lucy, could you please open the door?" Master Makarov's voice sounded from the other side. She gulped and unlocked it, pulling it open. Outside were her all of her friends with worried looks on their faces.

"Why did you run out so fast, Lucy?" Natsu yelled at her.

"Natsu! Shut your mouth for one second, would you! Lucy, can you explain what happened?" Makarov turned to her.

Everybody looked at her expectantly, even Laxus at the back of the pack, though she didn't meet his eyes, or anybody elses. "My name is Lucy Heartfilia. My father was Jude Heartfilia. I was ignored and mistreated by him and was going to be forced into a marriage and a life I never wanted to have so I ran away two years ago. When my mother died he lost all reason and stopped treating me like a daughter, more like a china doll that was never supposed to do anything or see the light of day without an escort. I could never do anything I wanted and I wanted to do was be a wizard and follow in my mother's footsteps. These last two years have been the happiest I've had in a very long time and… I really don't want to leave." The floor beneath her was dotted from fresh tears.

Levy was the first to run forward and hug her best friend, Natsu, Happy, and Erza were quick to follow. Erza was the first to speak, "Did you really think that would change anything? We have been side by side by side for two years. We know the real you, and it isn't the girl who was locked in an ivory tower. It's Lucy, the heart of Fairy Tail." Nods and murmurs of agreement surrounded her and fresh tears were summoned because of it.

"Thank you," she whispered softly.

Natsu was quick to ruin the sweet sentiment "C'mon, Lucy! I picked out a mission and we are leaving soon, pack up!"

She wiped her eyes and smiled, "Alright, just let me grab some things." Levy gave her one last hug and a squeeze of her hand before she left with the others to head back to the guild. _I can't believe I was so worried… Nobody even cares where I came from. This is Fairy Tail, my family, not my father. _

Virgo popped up in front of Lucy, startling her.

"I took the liberty of packing a bag for you, Princess, would you like anything else? To punish me perhaps?"

"Thank you so much, Virgo, you've been so kind to me ever since I found you. No punishment."

"Okay, Princess, call me again if you need me," with a bow and a flash of light, Virgo was gone. Lucy took a look around her apartment and sighed. _Next time I come back here I'll really be a wizard, my first job completed and everything._

She smiled to herself as she locked the door and headed to the guild. Half way there she paused over a bridge to look at the water below that was perfectly reflecting the cloudless blue sky along with her face. Her eyes were still red but her smile brightened the rest of her face. Out of the corner of her eye she caught movement but when she whipped her head around, nothing was there. With a shrug she continued her path but couldn't shake the feeling that somebody was watching her. Of course as soon as the guild hall came into view she forgot any negative thoughts and headed for it at a run. _My first mission! _

The doors burst open with Happy and Natsu staring right at her. The pink-haired dragon slayer smiled, "Hurry up, Lucy! Erza, Gray, and Lisanna are already at the train station!"

Her brows furrowed in confusion, "How did you know when to come out? Why aren't you already there?"

"I was waiting for you, of course, and I smelled you, it's pretty hard to miss," he stated.

Her cheeks heated with a blush, "Um, okay, well let's get there before they leave without us!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy took off into the sky then swooped down and picked me up. "Natsu is faster then you and the train is leaving soon, we don't want to miss it! Ugh, you're heavier than him, have you been eating too much fish?"

"Shut up, Happy! We both know Natsu is heavier than me!" she yelled at the flying fleabag. As the train station came into view they could see Erza and Lisanna leaning out a window as the train was pulling out of the station.

"Happy, fly faster!"

"Well I could if you would lose some weight," Happy retorted.

Lucy was about to punch the cat when he tossed her onto the railing on the last car. She jumped onto the train and leaned over to grab Natsu's hand to help him board. Happy landed on his shoulder.

"That was a close call!" Natsu's signature smiled appeared revealing sharp teeth. It had taken Lucy a while to get used to them. The trio walked through the cars until they got to Erza, Lisanna, and Gray.

"Way to go flame-brain, almost didn't make it there," the latter stated.

Lucy stepped in before the fire and ice fight started, "It was my fault. Virgo had a bag packed for me but I had a weird feeling on the way here. If I hadn't stopped to look around we would have made it here on time." Gray just snorted and looked away.

"What kind of feeling? What were you looking for?" Erza asked, ready to take on another project even though they hadn't even started their current one.

"Like somebody was watching me or following me," she shivered, "I couldn't shake the feeling." Erza looked thoughtful for a second, "We are all here now though so if anything goes wrong you have back up. If you don't mind me asking, why have you kept your name a secret for so long? How did your father not come looking?"

She had a feeling somebody was going to ask the question sooner or later but they accepted her past so she was no longer afraid to reveal the story, "My family has always been wealthy. I didn't want anybody to expect that wealth from me for the guild and I didn't want to be treated any differently. Since I never saw any posters asking for a reward or anything I figured my father just forgot about me since he rarely saw me to begin with. I was a sick child so he never had me appear in any portraits. He figured other people would see it as weakness like he did. Most assumed I had died and stopped asking questions to not upset the 'grieving father'. In a way I probably did him a favor by running," Lucy just shrugged and glanced out the window then back to Erza, "What it really boiled down to is that I didn't want people to treat me differently because of money. I wanted to be a normal wizard."

Erza smiled, "I'm sorry for prying, Lucy, but that is very admirable."

Lucy answered with shrug, "Thanks Erza, I don't mind now, you guys have made it clear that I'm still a part of the guild regardless of my past so I might as well tell you guys what happened. No need to hide it anymore."

Natsu's stomach made a horrible noise and Lisanna quickly shoved his face out the window of the train and patted his back gently. Lucy's nose scrunched in distaste. "Does he always do that?"

Lisanna shrugged, "He's always had motion sickness. I think all of the dragon slayers do, even Laxus. That's why he trained so hard for years; he wanted to use lightning magic to teleport. The rest of his team goes ahead of him and he meets them there. They communicate with a lacrima, showing him where to go. He hates traveling. Gajeel has less of a problem but I think he might meditate."

Erza nodded, "He takes the time to prep himself before he leaves, unlike the fire beast over here."

"What kind of job is this anyway?" Lucy asked when Natsu had finally finished making her equally as nauseous.

"A dark guild has set up shop in a town about two hours from here. We have to take them out before they cause any more problems. The payout is 2 million jewel, so that should take care of your rent for a while, huh?"

She laughed and nodded, "Yeah, I've had to sell a bunch of stuff that I look from home to pay my rent. I'm down to the things it would really hurt me to part with. I've been waiting for graduation day."

Lisanna smiled at her, "Well it happened, just in time, right?" at that moment the train ground to a stop. Gray's eyes snapped open and Erza went to grab Natsu's arm. He instead shoved Natsu out of the open window with his foot. She only shrugged. "At least it's effective."

The other girls ran outside to help Natsu off the ground and Lisanna brushed the dirt from his vest and pants. "Jeeze, Gray, could you have been any less delicate?" she glared at the offending ice wizard.

"…Natsu? Delicate? Please. It got him off the train that's all that matters. Most of the time we forget and he ends up making the journey twice. I am saving him from discomfort. It's like he owes me now." Lisanna just shook her head and put Natsu's arm around her shoulder before helping him walk to the city council building to find out what they were going to be dealing with.


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own any of the characters. Please enjoy. **

"So if I'm understanding correctly, you have no idea what kind of wizards are there, but you've seen metal golems attacking the city during the day and at night. It could be any amount of wizards with any sort of power? No wonder the reward is so high, you know nothing that can help us!" Erza shook her head, "Do you at least know where they are centered?" The councilman shook his head and she had to take a deep breath so that she wouldn't punch the life out of him.

The rest of the group could see that Erza was positively fuming. Except of course, Natsu.

"Hey, what did you find out!? Where are we going?"

She answered with a punch to the face that would destroy a lesser man. He merely shook it off as she commanded: "Follow me. We are going to have to track some golems to find out where the mages are. The council here knows nothing about what happened."

The girls followed silently with Natsu grumbling behind them. Happy flew, quite happily, in the air above them trying to see ahead. While they were searching on the ground outside of the town he directed them towards the next set of tracks. Eventually all they had to do was follow the swath of fallen trees and ripped up shrubs through the forest. What waited for them was a large stone façade building with few windows and a large wooden door. Giant piles of scrap metal were strewn about the lawn encompassing the building.

Erza motioned for them to follow her while they tried to get a vantage point to look through one of the glass panes.

"They are using the scrap heaps to make their golems. Natsu, if they summon any golems I need you to melt them down. Their magic will still be tied up in them and we can incapacitate them before they make golems out of anything else or fire any spells at us. Make your fire as hot as possible." He nodded to show he understood. "Lisanna, Gray, Lucy, we will focus on getting rid of the mages." The three in question nodded and moved forward.

Natsu hopped from the bush and yelled, "Hey, come on out and play! I got a fire in my belly and I'm ready to roar!" At once the mages ran out and started using their magic to put the metal together. Natsu was dodging and throwing punches to distract the mages while the girls and Gray snuck up behind them. Then he began the meltdown, destroying each of the golems one by one. The others had to be careful to stay away from the flames, even getting close to them left burns. Natsu took his job seriously for once.

Erza took her target out quickly with a simple punch and Lisanna used her take over magic to turn into a gigantic bunny to sit on two that were close together. Gray took out two more with a lance and Lucy was left with one. None of her spirits were able to fight so she grabbed her whip. Before she knew it the mage was in front of her so she lashed out with her fist but it did nothing to stop him and then her world went dark.

Lucy woke up with a pounding headache, "Oh my head…what the hell happened back there?"

Lisanna had a cold cloth against her forehead, "The mage knocked you out with a block of steel he picked up from one of the golems. You've been out for about two days. We paid the landlady for you and have been taking turns taking care of you." Lisanna watched the color seep into Lucy's cheeks.

"I'm so sorry I've been such a burden to you guys.." she said softly. Tears were creeping in to create a sheen on her brown eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" Lisanna cried and hugged Lucy, "It's okay. It was your first mission, you had no idea what was going to happen!"

The blonde shook her head, "You don't understand, I've been a burden on people my whole life. I want that to change while I'm here. I want to be stronger. I don't want you to have to protect me." Her hands clenched into fists and the tears started to fall. When she saw the drops she shook her head, crying out when it created a throbbing sensation in her skull.

Lisanna sat there, not knowing what to do, when she heard a knock on the door.

"I'll go get the door, okay, Lucy?" Voices reached her bedroom but she wasn't paying enough attention to figure out who they were. Large boots stomped up the stairs and she heard Lisanna leaving, "I'm sending Erza back here, okay? Mira needs me back at the guild!"

She barely registered the comment until she realized there was still somebody still coming up to her room. _What the hell?_

The blonde lightning wizard stood in her doorway and made his way to a chair. "Makarov wanted me to check on you. He would have done it himself but I'm being 'groomed'" he used his fingers as quotation marks, "to be the next master so this one was on me. What happened out there?"

She laughed, but with no trace of humor, "Nothing. Everything went fine. I'm just too weak. I can't do anything..."

He dusted imaginary dirt particles from his pants as he stood up, "Well as long as it's nobody's fault my job is done. Uh, feel better. Don't do anything stupid. Report to Makarov when you are up to fighting power, he has to file a report. Or me. Mira will let you know."

Erza passed him on her way up the stairs to Lucy's room but no words were exchanged between the two. "Lucy, are you feeling any better? Everybody has been worried about you, you know. They can't wait to see you back at the guild."

Her eyes were still cast downward when she asked her the question, "Erza, can you train me? Please? I'm tired of being helpless. It was my first mission but it still shouldn't have happened… They were barely armed and I only had one job…" she finally met Erza's eyes, "Please, Erza, please help me."

The red head's eyes widened at the sincerity in her voice, "Yes, Lucy of course. We can make up a schedule and… and I'll make you an amazing wizard both physically and magically."

Lucy's eyes glistened with determination rather than tears, "Thank you. I won't let you down," and her eyes began to close of their own accord. "Wow, I'm really tired all of a sudden."

"You need your rest so your head can heal, be careful."

"I will. I'll start training as soon as I'm cleared

Erza nodded and left her apartment. Now that she was awake and coherent she could handle things on her own. Somebody would be checking on her at least once a day, though.

_I've never seen her so determined, _Erza thought. _She did go down quickly…Even as a child Natsu lasted longer than she did from a hit like that. She is going to go through a lot of pain before she can be where she wants. I only hope she can handle it. _The rest of Erza's walk back was filled with planning how exactly she would train somebody who has never lifted her fist to fight.

Lucy was lying in bed staring at her ceiling, her thoughts jumbled. _I trained with my spirits every day since I got to Magnolia. They used their powers and I could handle it. I could just about get two at a time at full strength before graduation. As it was the two could stay out for a few hours. I guess instead of talking and learning from them… I should have been training with them. That way Laxus wouldn't have had to see me look so pathetic. He didn't even acknowledge it; he got out as fast as he could. I never wanted to be dependent again. I didn't want to be that sickly little girl anymore. No more reliance on other people for protection. If I'm going to be going on missions with these people I need to be able to handle it. No more tears. No more crying because I'm weak. It's something I can fix, not something to despair over. Unless there's a spider_ she shivered _spiders are so gross. _

Despite his blasé attitude Laxus had stayed outside of Lucy's house to ensure she was telling him the truth. Erza would have gotten it out of her otherwise. She really was just too weak. _It's a shame now the chick is off limits. Good on her for trying to get stronger. A weakling like that though? Couldn't even handle an average wizard without getting knocked out on the first punch? The boobs are great but can't compensate for that. Hope it works out with her and Erza. Otherwise Fairy Tail will be down a member, she will get herself killed in no time. _

Lucy fell asleep after she heard the rumble of thunder not knowing it was Laxus lightporting back to the guild hall. He walked up the stairs to his grandfather's office to let him know what he learned.

"She was just too weak to fight. She tried to hit the guy but she might as well have thrown a feather at him. It was like the others said. Nobody was coercing her, she wasn't covering for somebody's mistake, and she asked Erza to train her when the fracture healed." Laxus crossed his feat on his grandfather's desk. "She would probably do you all a great favor if she got knocked off on the next mission. She is a liability. She will either get herself or somebody else killed."

Makarov used his giant hand to knock his grandson's feet off his desk, "I will not have you speaking like that. You want to be the next guild master? It won't happen if you keep that attitude, I swear to you. She will train with Erza who will ensure that Lucy is ready for the next mission. The guild loves the girl. She has a heart bigger than all of our members put together. I only hoped you showed her more compassion while you were there." He chose that moment to glance up at his grandson from his paperwork to see the guilty look on his face. "WHAT!?" He yelled loud enough to shake the building. Shouts could be heard from the bar area wondering what the problem was. "That poor girl was in a delicate situation and you didn't even..I don't even know what to say to you right now. Get out. Go on a mission. I'll deal with you when you get back."

Laxus shrugged it off, he knew he was callous but the girl had to learn somewhere. He slammed the door open, which caused the heads of his comrades to swing towards him. On his way down he grabbed a random quest from the board and threw it to Mira who quickly documented it. He snapped his fingers at the Thunder Legion. The threesome quickly scampered after him. Mira slowly climbed to the master's office, "Um, Master? What just happened?"

"My idiot grandson needs to learn to grow a heart before I can even consider retiring. I heard how he handled the situation with Lucy and though he made the right call…he went about it the wrong way. Until he figures it out I can't do anything with him. I sent him on a mission to get out of my hair for the time being. Tell the others that everything is okay."

He heard Mira exit the office and inform the people in the hall that there were no structural problems and that everything would be okay. He tried to shake his head to rid thoughts of his grandson and go through the complaints piled on from another mission Natsu was a part of.

After a month of waiting Lucy was finally cleared for fighting. Her nerves were giving her butterflies in her stomach, it was her first day of training with Erza and I knew it was going to be a painful one. She wasn't wrong.

"Lucy, the hardest part of to train is your endurance and your breathing so we will start with that every day and it will be ongoing. I expect you to train every day with or without my help. The next will be your physical strength and then combat when you having mastered everything."

"Okay. Tell me what to do right now."

"First we are going to run. We can figure out a path through Magnolia that you can follow and gradually make it longer when you get stronger. I will run with you most mornings, you get a small break, then we will start the strength training and short combat exercises." She re-quipped into her leopard armor so she wouldn't expend as much energy on the run.

The duo stretched before setting off at a brisk jog through town. After a very, very short while Lucy was winded. She wouldn't allow herself to stop until a cramp shot up her leg and she fell.

"Lucy! Are you alright?!" Erza stopped and stared at her.

She brushed herself off to stretch before she started running again. Erza nodded at her determination, she would need to brush herself off many more times before the end.

When Lucy couldn't go on anymore she stopped Erza. She gave her an hour to rest before they turned to strength. She lifted weights or used her body as equipment and worked hard. Only when her muscles gave out on her completely was she allowed to take another break. Erza allowed only an hour for combat training before she dismissed the girl. She taught her basic moves to practice for the following day and let her limp home. Lucy was tired, sweaty, bruised, and limping to her door. She wanted to see and speak to no one. Unfortunately that was not possible. She looked at her door from halfway down the road to see Laxus leaning against the building. She thought about turning around but with his senses he could probably smell her a mile away. As she got closer he sniffed the air and turned towards her. A worried look crossed his normally stoic face when he saw her condition but she waved a hand dismissively.

"First day of training with Erza, what do you want," she refused to acknowledge that he looked like a god leaning against her house and that any other day her heart would be fluttering in her chest, or that the scar jutting across his right eye made him even hotter. "What do you want," she muttered again.

Any other day he would vaporize somebody that talked to him in that manner but considering the last time he spoke to her and current state, he let it slide. "I wanted to apologize for being so callous during our last conversation. I'm sorry you were hurt on your last mission but I hope your training with Erza is fruitful and you get to where you want to be." He took a surreptitious glance at his hand where Mira had written speech for him, he wanted to make sure he didn't leave anything out. This did not go unnoticed by the celestial wizard. She smacked her forehead with her hand.

"Thanks for the apology. Next time you don't need your girlfriend to write you a speech, just say 'I'm sorry'. See how much trouble I just saved you?"

He shook with anger and lightning arced between his fists that were clenched at his side. "Mira is not my girlfr-," He couldn't even make out the words. A growl started low in his throat and he gritted his teeth, "I guess you're really doing me a favor here, huh?" A wicked smile crossed his face, "If you stop being a little weakling I won't have to do as much paperwork."

She momentarily forgot her pain and lunged at the lightning wizard but he lightported away before she could and she slammed into the wall, knocking herself on her ass. She heard a deep laugh behind her like the rumbling of distant thunder and saw Laxus gripping his knees to keep from falling over. Her cheeks flushed redder than Erza's hair and she quickly flipped him off before rushing inside. A loud peal of thunder let her know he finally left. Anger slowly dissipated as she lowered herself into a bath and the pain set in.

The first week was the hardest Lucy had ever been through. She was so sore when she woke up she didn't even want to move. Somehow she worked up the courage to get herself out of bed and meet Erza for their run. Week after week the pain slowly lessened. They took missions that lasted less than a day but paid well enough so she didn't have to worry about rent. After six months she was close to where she wanted to be. The morning run turned into a mere warm up while the strength training just barely made her sore. Her combat training slowly increased in duration until she could effectively block Erza's attacks with less bruises.

After a particularly intense battle between the two Lucy finally managed a hit on Erza while she was wearing her leopard armor. Erza's response was only to smile.

"You've improved so much, Lucy, if I wasn't a part of it I wouldn't have thought it to be possible. Keep this up to keep your strength up and I'll unleash you on Natsu and Gray. They will have no idea what hit them," she and Lucy collapsed in a fit of giggles.

Lucy stared at the sun and lie on her back in the grass, "Thank you so much, Erza, I think I can handle things on my own now."

Erza nodded, "I think so too. If you were attacked without weapons you could take care of yourself."

Lucy groaned when she tried getting up but fell back down. She shyly grabbed Erza's hand when she offered it, "Thanks, I'm off to take a bath. My new muscles need a rest I think." Lucy stretched gently and admired her new physique. Her curves weren't as soft any more because of the strength hidden beneath her skin. She couldn't have been happier. Since she almost beat Erza in her fastest armor, she might be able to manage a punch Laxus the next time he saw her. He had been strangely absent the past six months; she hadn't seen him since she last tried hitting him.

Erza saw her deep in thought, "Still thinking about you know who?" Lucy had told Erza all about her encounter since she was unusually aggressive the day after and much to her chagrin, her friend laughed at her as well. She at least had the decency to try and hide it though.

The blonde nodded, "Just thinking about landing one punch on that stupid smug face and maybe adding another scar to his collection."

"Well you still have to be careful. He doesn't hold back in fights, even against guild members. Especially against guild members. He likes to assert his superiority every chance he gets. Most people have learned to stay away from him by now."

"Let's just say he messed with the wrong person. I'll get him one day, I'm sure. Anyway, off to clean myself up then I'm going to try a solo mission. I'll try and pick one around where you are going to be so I can call if I need any help, would that be alright?"

"That's a smart move, of course it's okay. Just take on what you think you can handle. You have nothing to prove to anybody."

Another nod came from Lucy before she went home to freshen up. A long hot bath helped her unwind and calm down. She selected blue shorts and a red shirt with her hair in her side ponytail. Following a quick examination to ensure all the dirt and grime was gone she went back to the guild to look for a job.

Natsu waved her over as soon as she entered the hall but she put a finger up for him to wait while she examined the board. Not one for patience, he was quickly behind her with Happy on his shoulder.

"Are you finally done, Lucy? I've been going on missions with Lisanna and Gray but it isn't the same thing."

She smiled at him, "Very soon. I just want to take up a solo job near Erza's next one. Just to make sure I can handle it."

"You think you're that strong? You think you can beat me?" He asked excitedly.

"I don't really want to fight you, Natsu…" she said quietly, still unsure of her skill.

"Go ahead, come on, I'll let you have the first hit, I won't even move."

The blonde shrugged, might as well test what she learned before she had to apply it for the first time.


	4. Chapter 4

Natsu squared his shoulders and grinned at Lucy. He knew she had been training but he really didn't expect much to have come out of it. She still looked weak to him.

"You ready?" she asked, still a little unsure about what was happening. He nodded back at her.

Erza laughed, "Natsu, you might be making a mistake. She has bested me more times than you have."

He looked up at Erza, confusion rolling through his features, "Wait, what? Rea-" his sentence was cut short by the kick delivered to his back by Lucy and he flew through the guild hall where his journey ended with his body embedded in the wall. Applause erupted from the patrons.

When Gray saw the dragon slayer remove himself with a smile on his face, he knew the battle was just getting started, "Take it outside. I don't feel like getting yelled at again for breaking things."

"That's a good idea, Gray, let's go Natsu!" Lucy yelled as she jogged outside. Adrenaline was surging through her veins. _I can totally do this. _

Natsu stalked out with a feral smile on his face. He was genuinely excited that Lucy had gotten so much more powerful. It was just another person for him to fight with.

"Now that I know you can handle it, Lucy, I'm not holding back!" he yelled and ran for her.

During her training, Lucy realized she shied away from any sort of physical pain. When Erza threw punches at her instead of blocking them or taking the hit she would do her best to use any sort of move to dodge. Part of the plan was to turn her weaknesses into strengths. When Erza used swords to attack from multiple angles it forced her to get creative so they focused a lot of their time on dodging and then counter attacking when the opponent was vulnerable. With Erza being who she is, though, she made sure Lucy could actually handle getting hit before she allowed her to use any fancy moves.

Natsu's fist was aimed right for her face, which she easily avoided by leaning to the right side and lashing out with her elbow to his vulnerable ribcage. Undeterred he brought arm down but accidently punched her in the butt because she was moving faster than he expected. A gasp rose through the crowd with a few chuckles. Lucy's face reddened but she took a deep breath to calm down. Instead she smiled, "Bet you've been wanting to do that for a while!"

It was Natsu's turn to redden as he stammered, trying to get out the word "no" and his eyes flickered towards Lisanna. She had her hands on her hips and was looking fierce. Lucy laughed and lunged at him again, this time moving faster and putting more power behind her blows. She didn't want to hurt him but he wasn't holding anything back. She had no reason to either. He lunged to connect his fist with her face again but she jumped at the last second, grabbing his shoulders while she was upside down. When her flip ended she lashed out with both feet into the center of his back. He flew forward into the closest tree and stopped moving.

Lisanna ran over to check on him with worry etched into her features but smiled after checking on him. "He is just knocked out, that's all," she called back to the onlookers. Erza was looking at Lucy with pride and the rest of them were staring at her with a newfound respect. Gray slapped her on the back playfully, "You made the best and worst mistake of your life. He will never live it down but he will not stop trying to challenge you either."

She grimaced when she realized that was indeed true. "Yeah…But at least now I know I can beat him the next time he sneaks in my apartment."

Unbeknownst to the members, Makarov and his grandson were watching from the offices. Makarov had a giant smile on his face while his grandson looked emotionless. "The girl has improved, you can't deny it. Erza did a wonderful job."

"Sure," Laxus replied with venom in his voice, "The runt of the litter has finally caught up to the rest of her class."

His grandfather shook his head, "I might put you in classes with her to learn to grow a heart. It seems like the only muscle you haven't been working on." He only sighed and his features crumpled under the weight of stress making him look far older than he should have. Laxus felt slightly guilty at that, "Sorry, Gramps. I'll work on it. Just not with her." He strode out of the office before he said anything else and went to sit downstairs with the Thunder Legion. They regaled him with tales of their recent missions while he made the appropriate noises. After they were finished he put his soundpods on and closed his eyes.

_Maybe the runt isn't off limits any more. I definitely sense some power there. _He knew Erza had the ability to mask her power but her looks were so distinctive it was a pointless endeavor. She did, however, show Lucy. He could tell once they got outside she put all her energy into fighting rather than hiding her strength. He watched her newly formed muscles, not too obviously, rippling beneath her skin as she moved. _I've had everybody else I've wanted while on missions, just never in the guild. I've been too focused. Or maybe I haven't wanted anybody here. Cana has the cans but it would be like banging a brewery. That holds no appeal. Mira's motherly manner would be ruined completely and as much as I hate to think it, I appreciate that in her. Plus Elfman and Lisanna would be up my ass constantly if I hurt their precious sibling. Laki is…weird. Kinana is Gramps' new favorite. Erza would chop my dick off rather than suck it, so that's out. Juvia is fuckin' nuts. _He was mentally ticking off the girls in his head. _Levy is too adorable. I don't know why Gajeel wants to fuck somebody that looks like a child. Speaking of children, Wendy. Wayyyy too young. Won't even go there._

_ Evergreen is my friend…plus she gets to be a prissy whiner if anything happens. She would probably expect me to buy her flowers every day. Or talk to her about feelings_. He internally shuddered. _That just left the runt. Last time she saw me she was bruised and battered and still wanted to hit me. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the reason she has been training so hard, so she can land a hit on me. _He had to stifle a laugh working its way up, like she could ever accomplish that. 

As if on cue his head jolted forward and his soundpods flew off from the impact. His shoes were knocked off the table he was sitting at and he almost fell off the chair. He rubbed the back of his head and looked around him. Natsu and Happy were talking to Lisanna. Laki was joking around with Macao and Wakaba. Nab was looking at the request board. Elfman was going on about manliness to Alzack and Max. All the others were on missions since S-Class trials were coming up. Erza was deep in conversation with Gray and Mira, about what, he didn't know. Then he saw the runt sitting off to the side. The pulse in her neck was beating fast and her face was slightly flushed. Her eyes were too bright. She was acting too excited. His friends were terrified of what he was going to do since they didn't stop the assailant, they didn't even know who it was.

Freed was the first to speak, "We are so very sor-"

"No, you couldn't have known. She has been training with Erza in her fastest armor set. The girl has moves. Nobody saw her do it," Laxus cut him off. The fear that came from the three people at the table smelled sickly sweet and was nauseating him. "You know I'm not going to knock you guys out, you don't have to constantly be afraid of me." It was driving him crazy. The runt was new prey though. She moved fast and had her powers masked so nobody new what happened but he could smell her. She had to know that, Natsu was her first friend and he made the heightened smell a known fact.

A smile crossed his face, "I can handle this."

Lucy's eyes flickered over to him to see it and Laxus saw her breath catch in her throat when she saw him, and her quick cover-up. _How cute. As mad as she is, she is half in love with me. _

_ Oh shit, does he know? _She thought as she tried slowing her heart rate. _Of course he knows. He has the same sense of smell as Natsu and he can track something for miles. I guess I just have to wait and see what he does._ _That smile though, it lights up his face, turns him into a different person. _She waited a few hours after seeing him leave before she felt safe enough to walk home. Maybe he was going to let it slide.

Her heart was racing as she ran home and it wasn't from the exercise. Fear made her limbs cold while she awaited an attack in the night. Her front door was in view so she put an extra burst of speed in. Right before she reached the handle there was a boom of thunder and the man she was avoiding was standing right in front of her.

"Hey, runt. Nice right hook you got there. Really took me by surprise." His smile was devoid of any happiness and the moonlight only served to make him more menacing. He could smell the fear coming off of her in waves. It left a heavy odor all the way from the guild.

She stood as still as possible while he circled around her. The predator was analyzing his prey.

"I'd apologize but I'm not actually sorry so it really wouldn't mean anything."

He actually laughed at that, "Wow. Did Erza give you some balls, too?" He saw her fists clench at the remark.

"Just the confidence and power to know I don't have to take any of your bullshit," she spat out through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, runt? If you're so powerful then why are you so afraid of me?" The way he asked the question made it seem like he wasn't just talking to her.

Curiosity got the better of her fear and she really looked into his eyes, noticing, not for the first time, how they looked like the ocean in a storm. "What did you mean by that? I thought you liked it that everybody was scared of you."

He shook his head, forgetting for a minute who he was talking to, "No… not everybody. The minions, yeah, but my own team? My grandfather? I can't have a normal conversation with anybody. Of course I'm always angry and always lashing out. It's li-" as his eyes flickered toward Lucy he realized where he was and what he was doing. "Fuck."

She giggled behind her hand, "Well speaking as somebody who HAS been isolated in a crowd of people most of their life with no friends or really anybody to talk to that would listen, I feel your pain. Start with your team. Sit them down and explain things. One of them is going to get killed trying to protect you so you should stop the problem before it gets too far. Then your grandfather. He is an understanding man; you just have to show him you're changing. He is afraid of you running everybody off if you become guild master because, well, your attitude sucks. People aren't afraid of coming to him. Yes, it gets old after a while I'm sure, but we need a dependable person in the position."

He listened with rapt attention thinking that his grandfather was right. He should have taken lessons with her. A shiver rolled up her spine and goosebumps erupted on any exposed flesh. While his eyes were downcast she was blatantly staring at his body. She had started with his legs, hidden underneath maroon pants and traveled upwards towards his trim waist and the way his shirt hung over his belt. He was wearing a black v-neck and her eyes strayed towards the muscular part of his chest that was exposed. She slowly went over the structure of each arm admiring his definition, up his sculptured neck, and eagerly devoured the details of his face. The way his brows furrowed when he was thinking, the way his lips parted in frustration, the way his face looked completely different as he paced back and forth. The side with the scar looking menacing while the other looked handsome but confused. His messily styled hair and how it still looked amazing on him. He turned back to her while her eyes were still elsewhere on him and when she realized it she blushed.

"Like what you see?" He asked teasingly.

Her eyes shot downward so fast he thought she was going to snap her neck. "I uh was looking um… I wanted to see.." she was trying to think of an excuse that wasn't too lame but she really couldn't and all the stammering was making it all too obvious even though he already knew.

Instead, he took the time to look at her. _Her legs seem longer than I remembered.. Those shorts were practically made for her ass but that shirt seems a few sizes too small for her chest. The moonlight actually makes her hair look even more beautiful…and silky.. I wonder how soft it is. _Her big brown eyes looked up at him timidly. _Those eyes. Who knew brown could be so beautiful too. It's like they're trying to read my soul. _Her lips turned up into a half smile.

"You like what you see?" while she struck a small pose with her hand on her hip as she used his words against him.

He nodded shamelessly. "Who wouldn't?" he replied honestly as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

Her face lit up red again and he shook his head, "Why is it that you seem so confident and the second somebody actually mentions it you clam up like…I don't know," he started waving his hands for emphasis, "Like it's something you never even thought about."

She shrugged it off and opened the door to her apartment, "You have your issues and I've got mine," her voice got softer as she turned to him, "See you later, Laxus. Good luck." She shut the door slowly and with her back against it she slid down to the floor with her head in her hands.

_What am I doing? That is LAXUS. Not Natsu, not Gray. Levy was right. The thought should not have even crossed my mind! Gah…I don't even…I can't talk to him again. Sure, Natsu and Gray both have amazing physiques, but Natus is…well…not the brightest. Gray is just too cold and the way Juvia obsesses over him most people don't even want to talk to him for fear of her reaction. Laxus though? Built like a god, has the attitude of one, but he has the depth that everybody else lacks. At one point all he wanted was more power. Show people he isn't weak. Now that he is there it's like he realized how much he missed out on during that journey. _She banged her head against the door a few times. _Why couldn't he have just been a dick…_

Instead of leaving immediately Laxus was sitting on the edge of the sidewalk with his legs dangling over the canal. He was thinking about what Lucy said and how much sense it made. Then her eyes, her lips, her neck… He heard banging coming from her apartment but after she groaned he knew it was just her head. After the way she looked at him she was probably trying to shake away the exact thoughts he was trying to suppress. The first thing he had to do was talk to the Thunder Legion. They had to stop the hero worship act. As much as he hated to admit she was right, one of them would get killed trying to save him one day and he couldn't let that happen. Despite his demeanor, he cared about them. He stood up and lightported to his grandfather's office to talk to him.

"Lucy packs quite the punch now, huh?" he said to his grandson as soon as he appeared. He had long since gotten used to the booming noise that accompanied him.

"Yeah, she got me pretty good. Was going to pay her back when some interesting things happened."

"Laxus… I'm not afraid of you. I'm afraid for you. You've created this image of yourself that not even you like and soon it is going to be too late to fix things. Look at Gajeel and what he did. He beat Levy and Lucy and now Levy can't get enough of him but he still holds the intimidation factor. You my boy, you have to change yourself now or it might to be too late. After Fantasia you did your soul searching and you came back different but if you want to take over then it isn't enough. I need more from you. I need proof."

He wasn't at all surprised his grandfather knew what he was thinking, "I know. I know. It's going to start with my team. They have all come home a little more banged up than they needed to be without me having a scratch. That needs to change. A lot of things do."

Pride glinted in Makarov's eyes as he surveyed the man he raised, "You're going to be a fine young man as soon as you figure these things out." With a nod he allowed Laxus to leave. He lightported to the roof of his house looking at the stars, hoping that maybe they would have the answers he was searching for.

The next day Lucy set off on her solo mission that was just two towns from where Erza was performing hers. She and Virgo triple checked all of her baggage before she met her friend at the station. She saw two tickets in the hands of the red head as she jogged over to meet her.

"Thanks for the ticket," she said brightly, "I think this is going to go really well."

"I think so too. I'll be getting off three stops before you and if you fall asleep I'll wake you up so you don't miss yours."

"I should be too wired to sleep. I'm really excited." Lucy replied with a giant grin plastered on her face.

Erza shook her head at her protégé and the two girls found a private booth on the train. A few hours passed before Erza got off at her stop. She turned back to the blonde and tossed her a lacrima, "Communications lacrima, call me if you need me okay? I don't expect you'll need to but…just be safe."

Lucy nodded with a lump in her throat. All too soon her stop came up. She got off the train with shaky legs and had to calm herself down before she talked to the councilman that posted the request.

"What can you tell me? What should I be looking for?" Lucy demanded the details. There was a demon loose in one of the caves surrounding the city and it had already killed off two wizards that had tried to subdue it.

"Very large, built like a Vulcan but covered in scales, not fur, and horns on its head. Large bat-like ears. Enormous claws in both hands and feet. It can fly." He rattled off quickly, like he was trying to get rid of her.

"Is there anything else I should know?"

He shook his head, "As soon as its gone I'll give you the reward."

She turned around and her whip became unclipped and clattered to the ground. As she bent to pick it up she heard the strains of a conversation.

"Going to get another one killed…too cheap to advertise for S-Class…she shouldn't be going out there"

She stood back up and bit her lip. They could be talking about another quest, but people _have _already died trying to complete this one. Not wanting to be the "girl who cried wolf" she set off at a run to the caves. She would take a look and if it seemed like she wouldn't be able to do the job then she would call Erza for help. Simple fix.

By nightfall she made it to the network of caves that ran through the mountains sheltering the town. Her black shorts and shirt helped her blend in with the night, though her hair made her stick out like a sore thumb. She crept quickly and quietly along the trails when she smelled something foul. She plugged her nose as she finally found an entrance that was lit up. Inside she saw the gigantic monster in question chewing on the leg of a human. She clapped her hand to her mouth to stay quiet but there was no point.

"There you are, you nosy brat," an unfamiliar voice drawled behind her. Two sets of hands grabbed her upper arms and she tried to struggle free. The third person dropped his black hood and backhanded her quickly. She stopped when she tasted blood in her mouth and a drain in energy. That seemed to be the talent of the two holding her.

"Now, there's a good girl. Come now. Our little beastie is going to be hungry soon." With his hood back she saw bright orange hair over emerald eyes. He looked older and his face was scarred and wrinkled. He led her right back into the cave with the smell she tried so desperately to get out of her nostrils. The two restraining her put her arms and legs into cuffs that were drilled into the wall. The position gave her a perfect view of the demon eating his meal. He was chained to the well by links of black metal that were glowing red.

"Alright, my name is Murphy. What's yours, pretty lady?" He trailed a knife up her bare leg that left a stream of blood in its path. When she kept silent he dug deeper, leaving a wide gash.

"Lucy!" she cried out in pain, hoping that would make them stop.

"Lucy…Lucy what?" he asked with the knife on the other leg.

"Heart. My name is Lucy Heart," she sputtered out with tears forming.

"Good girl," he crooned, digging the knife in again. Her scream echoed across the walls. "Scream louder, Lucy Heart. Nobody is gonna come check on you." A vicious smile danced in the corner of her vision.

"Who sent you, Lucy?" he asked menacingly with the knife cutting designs into her skin through her shirt.

"F-Fairy Tail, through the council" she stammered, hoping he would be satisfied and stop. No such luck.

"Such a good girl, giving us all we need and wanting nothing in return. I must go down and thank the council again. They given me so many yummy treats," He dragged the knife in a long deep gash across her stomach, enough to wound, but not to kill. He was rewarded with another scream.

_Virgo! _She shouted mentally, trying to block out the pain. _Virgo please, please weaken the wall behind me so I can pull the restraints out. Then I need you to take me out of here, please._ She felt warmth at her hip that let her know Virgo understood. A slight rumbling in the rocks behind her let her know Virgo was following directions. She pulled with all her might on the chains, first arms, then legs, and called out Aquarius.

"Aquarius, please, throw them further into the cave so I can get out," she said weakly. She saw the spirit about to retort, then the understanding as she looked at her master's appearance. She complied without comment and disappeared. The demon was still shackled close by but it bought her time. She didn't know what magic they had but she knew she had to get out.

"V-Virgo I need you to take me through a whole into another part of the cave system. I need to call for help and I can't go back to the town, somehow they are in on it. I can't get any further away because I don't have to power to get you there."

"Yes, princess," the spirit replied and gently picked up her master. She made a hole and filled it along the way, popping up in a dark cave much higher up than the previous. Virgo fluttered and then disappeared in golden light as Lucy struggled to stay awake. She took out her lacrima and sparked some magic into it, only thinking about safety, not Erza, when she saw a handsome face staring back at her. She was so startled she dropped the lacrima. Her hands were slick with blood it slipped through her fingers. All she managed to say before it hit the ground and shattered was "Help, in cave, need Erza". After she saw the magic fizzle out of the pieces on the ground her tears quickly followed.

Laxus was in the guild hall with his teammates, his friends, when he heard the crystal go off. He saw a blood drenched Lucy and heard her cry out before everything went dark. The three looked at him, or specifically his overturned chair since he was already trying to get information from Mira. He was up so fast he knocked it over.

"Let's go, Lucy is in trouble," he turned to call to Mira, "Tell Gramps, this might be a big one," before running to the train station. There was no point in lightporting there without his team. He might need them. He was just about to talk to them when he got the call so he would just say his speech during the train ride.

When they got the right tickets and the right train they found a booth towards the end. He pulled out his lacrima and called to Erza who answered immediately. "Lucy!" she cried, looking confused when she saw who it really was.

"Sorry to disappoint, Titania, but Lucy is in trouble. She called me for some reason and she was covered in blood. We are on our way there right now. She wanted me to call you, she said your name right before the connection went black. You're closer so scout it out if you get there early enough, we will be there in three hours."

She nodded and stopped the magic flow, running to the station as fast as she could.

Laxus then turned to his teammates. "I have a few things I want to say," he looked each of them in the eyes though he could tell they were still intimidated, "We are friends. We are equals. I don't want to be the leader of a group supposedly worshipping me. I don't want you to be afraid of my actions and reactions. I don't want you to hurt yourselves for my sake. Got it?"

Surprisingly, Bickslow was the first to understand, "Yeah, yeah, you can't order me around," he said with a smile and wave of his hand. He saw his teammates stiffen but he put his hands behind his head and leaned back.

Laxus smiled at him, "You're damn right." Freed and Evergreen were a little slower to become more casual but eventually they all opened up. When that happened, Laxus then focused back on the reason they were on a train together.

"I don't know if you saw all the details but Lucy is hurt somewhere, in a cave. It looked like she was surprised to see me so she dropped the lacrima and it shattered. She was covered in blood; I hope not all of it was hers. Erza is on her way so hopefully she has some leads for us when we get there.

"What kind of mission was she supposed to be on?" Freed asked.

"As far as I know it was supposed to be a simple find and eliminate. A demon was attacking a town and she as just supposed to kill it," Laxus answered.

"I wonder what happened then, maybe it was too hard for her to do by herself and she got hurt?" Evergreen was thinking out loud.

"I don't think so. The girl has a good head on her shoulders and the way her and Erza had been training? She knew Erza would help if anything went wrong, that's why she was surprised to see me. Something else surprised her before that."

Freed looking knowingly at Evergreen, they both knew there was an undercurrent of emotion and the desperation with which he wanted to reach the girl. They just didn't know why. Laxus, ever vigilant, caught it.

"She was the one that knocked off my soundpods yesterday so I cornered her on the way home. It, somehow, turned into a talk I didn't actually want to have but she said shit that straightened me out. I need to change how things are at the guild and she was the catalyst," he ended it with a shrug, not knowing what else to say.

Lucy was lying unconscious in the cave. Despite Virgo's best efforts she could not be hidden. The demon could smell the blood and slowly led them back to her. They didn't suffer such a large amount of blood loss so they woke up faster and were fueled by anger. Virgo had caved in both sides of where Lucy was but the demon was enormous and made quick work of removing the boulders. They brought her back to the lower cave where they threw buckets of water on her to wake her up. When she awoke she screamed in pain again to find both legs broken with blood still running in rivulets from her wounds. She couldn't move without agony shooting through her nerves like fire.

"Lookin' for these? You've been a very bad girl so you are not going to get these back," he threw her gate keys into the darkness of the cave and Lucy despaired. The proximity allowed her to call Virgo. Now she was going to die. _If I hadn't called Laxus everything would have been fine. I wouldn't have been surprised and I could have told Erza where to find me. I'm going to die. They are all going to think I ran away from a solo mission because they will never find the body. _

"For your punishment I think you need to lose that pretty little face of yours." He slashed down with the knife towards her face and she tried blocking with the broken manacles still on her wrists but he was too strong. She felt the knife bite down above her right eye and into her cheekbone. At least she protected her actual eye. When the pain set in she screamed again.

Erza had already met with Laxus, Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow, and they were headed to the mountain when they heard Lucy. Erza's face blanched and they all picked up the pace arriving at the mouth just in time to stop Murphy from removing her eye. Freed used his runes to destroy the chain on the demon, ending its summoning. Bickslow and Evergreen took out the normal wizards and Erza tackled Murphy to the ground and started punching him. Her sword appeared in her hand and she was ready to chop his head off when Laxus grabbed her arm.

"We are still in Fairy Tail, no matter what happened here. You'll regret tomorrow either way," he wanted to calm her down before she killed the man so he threw her a pair of cuffs instead. He took it upon himself to pick up Lucy as gently as he could.

"I'll take her down to the town and we can get her patched up."

Lucy's eyes shot open, "No, not the town. They know. The mayor and council know and kept doing it. Please take me home I, want to go home," tears were streaming down her face as she closed her eyes and laid her head against his chest. The salty water ran a clear path through the blood and grime covering her face. Staring at her broken form, Laxus felt his heart simultaneously grow and break into a million pieces. Erza and Evergreen had tears in their eyes.

Laxus cleared his throat of emotion. "I need you to take them to the next town over. Avoid the people here if you can. Rent a car first. I'm going to lightport her back to Magnolia so somebody can take care of her," his voice broke on the last words but nobody made a comment. Erza wiped her eyes and changed into her leopard armor.

"I'll run and get a car…" she started telling the others. Laxus walked out with Lucy still in his arms.

He said quietly to her, "This might hurt, I'm sorry.." He concentrated all his energy to lightport both him and her back to the guild hall. When he opened his eyes again he could hear a dozen people still in the guild. He kicked the door open, trying not to jostle the girl in his arms. There were a few screams, one of which belonged to Mira but when he looked around he couldn't find her. She was smart; she probably would have gone straight to get Wendy.

Levy was a few feet away from him with tears streaming down her cheeks, "Is…is she a-alive?" When she saw Laxus' head nod the affirmative she collapsed into Gajeel's arms, sobbing louder. To get away from the noise so the blonde in his arms wouldn't wake up he went to the infirmary where Makarov was there to greet them.

"What the hell happened? I heard from Mira that Lucy was in trouble and she called you? You were out of here so fast nobody knew what happened."

He placed the broken girl onto a bed as gently as he could and he almost collapsed onto the one next to her. His grandfather's concern doubled, "What happened?" he asked a little more gently.

"She called me instead of Erza and I knew she was in trouble so we left as soon as we could. I met Erza there, called her on the way. There were five mages. Two of them drained magic energy so I'm assuming the drainers caught her. I don't know what the leader did, or the others. We took them out too quickly. Erza demolished him before he had the chance to speak. She was like that when we got there. I was going to take her to the hospital but she said no, the mayor and council knew what was going on and sent her up there anyway. She said she just wanted to go home," his voice broke for the second time that night. "I lightported here. Apparently it takes all I've got to take another person. It's easy for me to do but I have to infuse them with the same power so I can take them with me. I stopped Erza from killing the leader, though that's all I wanted to see her do. They are taking them to the prison of the next town over and contacting the magic council from there."

Mira burst in the room with Wendy a second later. The girl gasped and put her hand to her mouth at seeing the wounds but she got right to work. Mira took a second glance at Laxus, "What did you have to do?"

He was saved from answering by Makarov who explained the tale and why Laxus was so worn out.

"I have to tell the rest of the guild, they are going crazy. Levy wants to come up and see her."

Wendy nearly fell onto the bed but Mira's strong hand kept her from falling on Lucy. "Thank you, Mira. I fixed the breaks but I don't have enough energy to heal the cuts. They have to be cleaned out though, most of them are covered in dirt. She is going to have a scar on her face forever too…the magic doesn't work as well on those injuries if they start to heal. I can't do anything for a few days," she said apologetically. Mira took her back to her room in the dorms before returning to address the other members of the guild.

When they were alone again Makarov turned to his grandson, "I'm very proud of what you did today. You've come such a long way. Get your rest. Lucy will be taken care of. " But Laxus was already asleep.

Lisanna and Levy were the next through the door. Levy was quietly sobbing next to the bedside while she watched and helped Lisanna clean her wounds. They worked on her face first, using alcohol to clean and then slowly and carefully stitch her up so the scar wouldn't be too noticeable. Her stomach was next, then her thighs.

"See, Levy, now it doesn't look so bad, right?" Lisanna asked softly.

Levy nodded while she held Lucy's hand, "Better than before. She is still going to be in so much pain though…I'll go to Porylusica to get something for her tomorrow." Lisanna left quietly after assuring Laxus had no wounds, that the only blood on his clothes were from Lucy.


	5. Chapter 5

**My apologies for length. Please enjoy, read, review. **

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Laxus woke early in the morning and stared at Lucy's sleeping form. Levy had slept in her chair that night and had rested her head on the blonde's bed while still holding her hand. He allowed himself a small smile. She was safe and she really was loved. He ran his hand through his hair and walked over to get down to the guild hall for some breakfast. He was starving.

As soon as he walked through the door there was a hush over the crowd and Natsu came barreling towards him, "I want to go see her!" he was screaming, "Mira won't let me!"

"For good goddamn reason too, you don't know the definition of quiet, fire-breath. Lucy needs sleep," Laxus told the pink-haired wizard. "Mira, some breakfast please? I'm starving."

Mira nodded affectionately towards Laxus as he took a seat near Erza. She looked at him hesitantly, "Thank you for calling me. Thank you for taking it seriously. If we hadn't gotten there in time… How is she today?"

Studiously ignoring the first statement he focused on her question, "She looks a lot better. Lisanna brought her extra clothes. Her wounds stopped bleeding sometime last night, and well.. She doesn't look like she is on the brink of death anymore."

After he finished his meal he walked over the Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow. "Thank you, all of you, for following me last night." The three murmured "you're welcome" to varying degrees and he headed up to see Makarov.

"How did she look this morning," was the first question he asked and Laxus gave the same answer he gave Erza. Then he asked how Laxus was fairing.

"I'm fine now. She had no magic energy so I had to give her almost all of mine to get her home. All I needed was some sleep. She is going to need a lot more than that."

"She will but I trust she will be taken care of. She will wake up terrified and feel just as weak as she did her first mission here. You might need to talk her out of leaving."

Laxus' heart skipped a beat, "You really think she will want to leave?"

"It was her first solo mission to test her own power. All of you agreed that was S-class level but she might not accept that. The fact that she couldn't do it herself is going to be a moot point to her. You are going to have to explain."

He nodded his head slowly as he thought about it then excused himself, "I'm going to go check on her again. Send Levy down for something to eat."

Makarov smiled at him, "Who knew that was all it would take."

Levy jerked awake when she heard the soft knock on the door and Laxus came though. "Hi, everybody is pretty subdued downstairs, they are really worried. I kicked Natsu out, told him not to come back until Lucy is awake. Go get some breakfast. I'll take over watch duty. Gajeel is worried about you too."

She smiled gratefully and gave one last glance at her friend before she went through the door. Laxus took her place next to Lucy's hand and held it. He marveled at how much smaller and delicate it was than his. Her right hand had callouses from the whip but the skin was still so soft compared to his. He gently brushed hair from her face and stared at the bandage covering her eye, hoping the beautiful brown orbs were untouched. She sighed contentedly in her sleep.

Hey leaned back in his chair and put his sound pods on waiting patiently for over an hour. When her eyelids started fluttering he threw them to the side and grabbed her hand again.

"Hey, Lucy, it's okay, you're back at Fairy Tail now, okay?" he tried his most soothing voice. She still screamed when she woke up all the way and jerked her hand from his, huddling in the far corner of the bed.

"What happened? Where am I? Where did the demon go? The man with the knife? Am I safe now?" she stared up at him with the one brown eye, not yet realizing what happened. At the sound of the scream Levy, Mira, Gajeel, Erza, and Cana bolted up the steps to see what the commotion was. Levy stood at the foot of the bed with fresh tears in her eyes and Gajeel brought over another chair for her while he stood behind it like a sentinel. Mira smiled sadly and Cana looked around the room once more to ensure nothing was wrong before leaving. Erza sat on the bed across from her.

"Erza, what happened.." Lucy stared at her friend.

"You don't remember anything?" Levy asked and her eyes darted to Erza who remained emotionless.

"No not yet, what happened to me?"

Laxus took the opportunity to clear his throat, "Lucy, you took the solo mission in Flera, do you remember that much at least?" She nodded her head. "When you got there, something happened, you were captured. You tried using the lacrima, I'm guessing to call Erza. You were surprised when it was me and dropped it, you said 'help in cave Erza'. What about that?"

She stared first at Levy then at Laxus. His eyes captured and held hers.

"Yeah…I went to check it out, just recon. The council said they knew it was one demon and what it looked like but mentioned no mages. I was thinking about calling Erza earlier. I heard them say the guy was too cheap to put up the S-class reward and it was a shame they were sending another because two wizards had died already…" Her brow furrowed and she yelped in pain as it pulled at her stitches. Laxus pushed her down into the bed and held her hand again.

"What else happened?" he asked softly, "If you can remember."

"I saw the demon, saw it eating a person's leg right off the dead body. The smell was horrible. I was going to back off when they caught me and started draining my power." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, wincing at the stiches in her stomach.

"The orange haired one, his name was Murphy. He asked for mine and when I didn't tell him, he cut my leg. So I said my name was Lucy. He asked me my last name and when I told him Heart, he cut me anyway." Tears were slowly falling onto the bed and Levy grabbed a tissue and gently wiped her face. "He asked why I was there so I told him…Then he cut my stomach. That's when I tried summoning Virgo. I had her dig through the wall right to where I was so I could pull the shackles out and she took me to another cave. That's when I called you. I remember thinking that I just wanted to be safe and I saw you instead of Erza. I had wanted Erza… I was surprised so I dropped the lacrima. I tried to catch it but I had so much blood…so much blood everywhere and on my hands. I dropped it and it shattered, that's when I passed out."

Levy looked frightened even though nothing was happening to her and Laxus could hear Gajeel's teeth grinding together. Laxus himself had to take deep breaths to keep from frying something.

"When I woke up my legs were both broken. I tried moving but it hurt so much. He said because I tried to escape he would take away my pretty face. I held up the hand that still had the shackle on it but I was so weak that I couldn't fend off the blow completely. I think I saved my eye but I don't know what happened after that. All I remember is thinking that I was going to die and everybody would think I just ran away because it was too hard and there wouldn't even be a body." She looked towards Laxus and Erza for help. Erza only nodded towards Laxus. It seemed she didn't trust herself to speak.

"You called me on the lacrima and as soon as I saw you I knew you were in trouble. When you said Erza I put two and two together. I got your location from Mira and took the train there. I called Erza on the way. She scouted it out and we all went in. I had Freed, Evergreen, and Bicsklow with me. You said the council was in on it and you didn't want to go back there so I took you here. Wendy healed your breaks, there were several in each leg, but that completely drained her. She said she would try with the cuts but… I'm so sorry, you might end up looking like me.." He ended softly, his eyes on her mattress.

He looked up to see her crying again, "Hey now, everything is okay. You're safe. Just take it easy."

She shook her head and leaned over to hug him and whisper in his ear, "You saved me. Thank you."

He was shocked, then enveloped her fragile body in a hug before gently laying her back down. "Get some rest, blondie."

"I HEARD HER! LET ME SEE LUCY!" they all heard a commotion downstairs and Laxus only rolled his eyes.

"I guess he knows you're awake. Want me to let him in?" She nodded weakly in response.

"Just for a little bit. Just so he knows I'm okay."

Laxus opened the door and shouted down to Natsu, "You have 5 minutes then she is going back to sleep."

Within seconds the door banged open again and Natsu barged in, "Lucy are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said softly, "Thanks to him." She pointed to Laxus who looked surprised.

"I guess I owe you for something then," Natsu said begrudgingly. "Me and Happy miss you, you know. Do a mission with us when you're feeling better. Don't take too long or you'll forget all of your training, okay?"

She gave him a feeble smile and another nod. He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze before he left again.

"You know, I learned how to use lacrima in school, you'd think I'd be able to apply that basic knowledge," she said trying to lighten the mood.

A few hollow chuckles were all she received in response, "Guys it's going to be okay. You're not sitting at my deathbed. I'll be fine in a few weeks.

Levy stared at her friend like she didn't understand, "What about your face? Aren't you upset?"

Lucy took a deep breath, barely flinching, and looked back at Levy. "Nah, his looks hot so maybe mine will to. Or people won't underestimate me. Or even better they will think I'm menacing and then I come out with my happy-go-lucky attitude and blow their minds! The possibilities are endless!"

Everybody laughed at that. Laxus leaned back with a newfound respect. _Looks like Gramps and I both underestimated her. She's going to stick with it. Wait did she really just say my scar is hot? _

The tension was finally broken in the room, but Laxus saw her eyes flutter shut for just a moment.

"Alright, everybody out, runt needs her rest now." He ushered everyone from the room. Erza still was quiet as a mouse.

"Laxus, can you stay a minute," Lucy called as he was about to shut the door.

"Sure, what can I do?"

"Can you clean or check the bandage on my face? Tell me how bad it is?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah, yeah of course." He grabbed the cleaning supplies from a nearby cart and slowly unwrapped her head. When the last part of the bandage and padding came off she blinked her eye.

"How bad is it?" she asked tentatively. She didn't want to seem nervous in front of her friends. She wanted them to see her strong. She just wanted to know the extent of the damage.

"You still look as beautiful as ever," he said softly. "Your eye is untouched. It goes from here," he touched her face very softly, "To the bottom part of your eyebrow, skips over your eye, and starts here and ends here." He touched her face again to illustrate his point. It would look almost identical to his. "Lisanna and Levy patched you up well. The way they stitched it means it won't leave much of a mark."

Lucy was still reeling from the comment he made on her beauty. When she looked down she saw a huge dark splotch on his shirt.

"Oh did you get hurt too!?"

He laughed softly, "No, I was the one who brought you back. I asked about taking you to the hospital in town and you were vehemently against it. You said you wanted to go home, asked if I could take you there, then you laid your head against my chest and passed out. I had to give you a lot of magic energy so you could lightport with me. I passed out on the bed next to you as soon as I laid you down."

She looked up at him and smiled, then stopped because it hurt.

He chuckled again and bandaged up her face, then cleaned her stomach and legs. She only had on underwear beneath the gown but he said nothing and his eyes never strayed from where he was working. He was surprisingly gentle with her. By the time he was done she was already fast asleep. Laxus sighed heavily and lay in his bed from the evening before. He still wasn't up to full strength. Lucy's screams in the middle of the night woke him up.

Laxus hurried to kneel next to her bed. He tried gently shaking her awake, "Lucy, hey, Lucy! Wake up, you're okay!"

Her visible eye opened and was shining with unshed tears. She stared up at him, "I don't want to die. I kept thinking I didn't want to die. Now it's all I can see when I close my eyes." She knew she had broken the promise to herself, but maybe this could be an exception.

He stroked her hair softly while he debated his options. "Do..you want me to get somebody, Natsu or Erza or Gray? Do you want me to sleep with you tonight?" he was nervous when he asked, he had never had to do this for somebody before.

She nodded shyly and ducked her head, "I just want to feel safe."

He climbed on top of her blankets, snuggling her to his chest. Soon after her breathing evened out he fell asleep.

Mira was the first to arrive at the guild that morning and she went to check on Lucy to see how she fared during the night. When she saw the two blondes snuggled in bed she nearly died from excitement. She had to cover her mouth to mute her squeal of delight. When Makarov came in next she dragged him up the stairs and he had the same reaction. For Laxus' sake they locked the door behind them and deterred any other guild members from entering, saying they checked on Lucy but she was very tired so they wanted to let her rest.

Lucy was the first to wake. _Wow it's really warm in here. Why do I feel like I'm being restrained? _She looked down at the muscular arm around her waist and then up at the man who it belonged to. _Oh wow that was not just a nightmare turned into a dream it must have actually happened. _When she thought about it again she felt her head heat up where he had touched her last night. She slowly turned in his arms so she was facing him. _He even looks a little menacing in his sleep. _She gently traced his scar with her finger. _I wonder if I'm going to look like that now. I guess it isn't the worst thing in the world. I could be dead. As long as he is here I might as well enjoy it. Won't get many boys sniffing around if my face is messed up._ She snuggled against his chest and fell almost immediately into a dreamless sleep.

Laxus opened his eyes as she was attempting to burrow into his chest so he stayed still. About fifteen minutes passed when he heard a soft knock on the door.

"It's Wendy, I want to see what I can do about the cuts. I'm all rested up and everything."

"Alright, once second. Let me wake her up." He called back in a whisper with his fingers gently threading through Lucy's hair. "Wake up, Wendy is going to make you feel better now. This will be the last night you have to stay here."

She opened her eye groggily and stared at him with an angry look on her face, "But I wanted to sleep," she moaned.

"Thattagirl, runt, way to think of the important things."

Lucy heard Wendy giggle on the other side of the door and she threw the covers over her head. Laxus extricated himself carefully before unlocking the door- he hadn't done it but he had his suspicions- and let the healer in. Wendy had a concentrated look on her face as she laid her hands on Lucy. A few minutes later she started removing all of the bandages. The cuts were now dull pink scars, the wounds looked like they were months old. She carefully cut away all of the stitches before allowing Lucy to stand up.

"How do you feel?" the little girl asked.

"Much better, now I can smile without being in pain," she said with a grin.

Laxus shook his head and walked out the door. Lucy ran to the bathroom to see the scar on her face as soon as she heard it shut. "I guess it really isn't too bad, in the right light you can hardly see it. I have a feeling at candle light dinners I'll have to just turn to my good side though."

Wendy's shoulders dropped dejectedly, "I'm so sorry, I thought I could fix it."

Lucy enveloped the girl in a fierce hug, "You did everything you could. My legs were more important, who knows what had gotten into the wounds before you came along. I appreciate all of it, thank you, Wendy!"

With a happy face Wendy ran to the door where she had put down an extra set of clothes for Lucy, "Put these on now, everybody wants to see that you're okay. Nobody was allowed to come in this morning."

After following her directions she was dressed simply in black capris and a yellow shirt. As soon as she opened the door to the main part of the guild hall she was bombarded by questions and people. She took a seat at the bar but wouldn't tell anybody anything until she had some food in her.

"Let her be," Erza commanded to the crowd who immediately parted, "She hasn't eaten in three or four days."

Mira placed a plate full of food in front of Lucy, "I'm not sure how hungry you are but I tried to make all of your favorite things. Eat what ever you can. I'm sure Natsu or Gray will be happy to finish off the rest," she said with a giggle.

"Did you have any trouble with them, Erza?"

The redhead looked at her friend, knowing exactly what she meant, "No, but there were four of us and we caught them by surprise. Two of them were adept at draining magic energy. The others were summoners. That should have been S-class. The summoners were powerful, but again we caught them off guard and had the upper hand. You've gotten much stronger, Lucy, but there was no way you could have done that by yourself. I'm just glad Laxus stopped me."

Lucy had finished eating her food and gave the rest of it to Gray, who was sitting next to her. Natsu must have been out with Lisanna, still bummed that Laxus threw him out. "What do you mean?"

"I was ready to end the life of the man you called Murphy. He grabbed my arm, told me I was still in Fairy Tail and I would regret it either way and he was right. I would regret not being able to end him but I think it would have been much worse if I had killed him. I still haven't thanked him for that." Erza shook her head and pushed away from the bar top, "I have to go finish my mission. I told the mayor what had transpired and he allowed me a few days before coming back. Now that I know you're okay I have to go."

"Thank you for sticking around, Erza!" Lucy called to her as she was leaving.

"Hey, Gray?" Lucy asked nervously.

"What's up?" he replied around mouthfuls of food.

"Is my scar that noticeable?"

He thought for a moment and moved his head around, "Sort of, but it doesn't really mess your face up or anything. Kinda looks cool."

"Oh okay. Thanks!"

"No problem."

Laxus was talking to his grandfather again about what happened the night before, "She was having nightmares last night so I held her until she fell asleep. I think that's going to be happening for a while, though. Did the magic council say anything about the city? How they were connected?"

"Apparently the summoning wizards had been terrorizing the town for months and would capture women for torture and eventually to be devoured. Wizard prey is more exciting for them so they ask for a wizard a month. If the city doesn't deliver they go on a rampage and take more victims. The mayor himself decided it was easier to send people to their death then report it or pay enough to make it S-class. He has been arrested."

"Good, and the wizards?"

"Death sentence it looks like. From the amount of bones in the cave it has been going on for a very long time."

He suppressed a shiver and stared at the ceiling. _Lucy was almost just another pile of bones for us to pick up. _Out loud he said, "I'm going to walk her home. I still have a few questions."

"I'm sure you do, son, get out there."

He strode out the door and glanced around for her, finding her at a table with Levy, Gajeel, Natsu, and Lisanna. She had a smile on her face and actually seemed happy so he let her be. He went to sit with his team instead but he took a seat that allowed perfect view if she were to leave.

"So when are you gonna bang?" Bickslow said with a smile. They hadn't been able to get his attention since he started staring at the blonde wizard.

"The fuck are you talking about?" Laxus was defensive. He was embarrassed that he had been caught and his friends saw a rare sight. The fearsome man was blushing.

"You haven't been able to tear your eyes away from her since you sat down. We have been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes," Freed stated.

"She had a nightmare last night. I slept with her- JUST SLEPT- so she could sleep without waking up screaming. I'm assuming that's what happened yesterday too. I haven't been able to get the smell of her out of my nose," he said distractedly.

Ever hid her giggle behind her hand, "She left quite the impression then,"

Laxus took a balled up napkin and threw it at her head, "Yeah, that she did. You've all had your fair share of crushes. Ever, you still can't keep your eyes off of Elfman for more than ten minutes no matter how much you say he bothers you." He smiled at her.

She threw the napkin back at him, "That is so not true." Her head swung to look at Freed and Bickslow but they were just nodding. Her eyes narrowed and she left the table, slamming the door on the way out of the hall.

Still with a smile on his face he felt his eyes drawn back to Lucy. She took that exact moment to look up and catch his eye. He widened his smile and nodded at her. He received a shy blush in return then she held up her finger to her friends to wait and she started walking his way. _I did not expect that. Why is she coming over here? _He looked to Bicks and Freed but both had mysteriously vanished during his gesture.

"Looks everybody ran off, how'd that happen?" she said teasingly as she took a seat across from him.

He scratched the back of his head, "Guess you must have scared them off. Everything was fine before you started walking over."

"You can tell them to come back. I wanted to say thank you. I guess when I thought 'safe' I thought power and your face popped up. If you weren't paying attention I would just be another pile of bones." _Should I mention last night? Maybe. No, he probably didn't think anything of it._

"Well how about as a thank you, you go out to dinner with me tonight." _Oh fuck, look at her face. She is going to say no. Why did I open my mouth. Ugh, she is going to say no. Is this what rejection feels like? It sucks ass. No wonder Freed and Ever haven't done anything with their feelings. _His inner ramblings were interrupted by Lucy's answer.

"Yes. I would love to." _Why did I say yes?! I was thinking no no no it's a bad idea but that is NOT what came out of my mouth. But aw, he looks so happy now. He already slept with me he knows what he is in for. It's not like it could get much worse. _

Gajeel erupted in laughter with Levy a few tables over. He had been listening to the entire exchange. Laxus rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what he found so funny while Levy was prodding him with her pen, trying to get answers.

"I'll pick you up at 6:30?"

"Perfect!" she said brightly before skipping over to grab Lev. Laxus was half way the door to the guild when he heard the blue-haired wizard scream "WHAT?!".

"He asked me to go to dinner with him." Lucy explained calmly, "I need you to help me I have no idea what to wear, what does he like?"

"I've never seen him with a girl. I don't know. Are you telling me you like him? After what he said!?"

"YOU'RE GOING OUT WITH LAXUS?!" Natsu screamed through the guild hall rendering all of the patrons silent.

"Not that it's anybody's business but yes. It's probably just to make sure I'm okay I don't know why everybody is so damn UPSET." She stalked out of the building and towards her house. _God Natsu is so nosy. I don't care what he can hear with those stupid ears. The man has no boundaries to speak of. After tonight I really have to brush up on my studies. I shouldn't have even called him, but if I didn't, I don't think Erza could take all of them out without me getting injured any further. It doesn't matter. I made the decision I just have to do a little more studying…and next time an ACTUAL solo mission. _

It was 3:00 when she had finally arrived home and she spent all the time she had trying to figure out what to wear. He was knocking on her door when she finally made her decision.

"One second!" she yelled, knowing he would hear it. He leaned against the wall, Evergreen had told him the same thing before and taken over an hour. Luckily for him it was barely 6:35 when she threw open the door. She had chosen a deep blue off the shoulder dress that came to her mid thigh. A white belt was the only accent. She tried to cover the scar on her face but nothing she tried worked and she finally gave up.

A smile lit up his normally angry features, "You look beautiful. I brought you some flowers." He handed her a dozen red orchids with a pink accent around the sides.

Her face was the color of the flowers as she looked up at him from beneath her lashes, "Thank you, I'll put these in water."

He saw how nervous she was and her blush highlighted the one imperfection on her face. He was trying to make it as relaxing as possible. He had chosen a black sweater with long sleeves pushed up the elbow with a white shirt visible underneath. A black belt held up his jeans.

When she returned he held his hand out and gave hers a light squeeze when she took it. "I don't want you to be nervous around me. Naturally I still want flame-brian and the ice queen to shake in their boots when I walk by, but everybody else, I just want to relax."

"You're using me to do it?" her voice was faint as she realized what she was doing.

Laxus' eyes widened, "No, that's not what I meant. Poor choice of words. Think of this as a sort of apology/date thing. I know how acted towards you, and I wanted to make it up to you." He said it quickly trying to make her realize what he was trying to say.

"Okay," she responded, grabbing his hand again and swinging it back and forth. Let's go to dinner."

He smiled and walked with her to the restaurant even going so far as to open the door for her and pull out her chair. During dinner he asked about her time with Fairy Tail, how she enjoyed having classes with the Fairy Tail natives. In return, she asked about his friends and some of the missions he had been on. At one point they were both laughing so hard they were crying.

"So it's this gigantic slime monster that we spent all of our energy trying to destroy, took us three hours to finally figure it out. We were cut, battered, bruised, we came so close to not even making it. We are all panting, honestly just glad to be alive, when Ever starts crying that she lost her favorite heel. Starts digging through the slime to try and find it. Bicks, Freed, and I just lose it. She is still crying and yelling at us for not trying to help."

Lucy laughed so hard she shot water from her nose, and Laxus' booming laugh caused patrons to look at him in alarm. It sounded like there was a storm inside the restaurant. It seemed like the wait staff and customers were happy when they left. Lucy threaded her fingers through his on her own.

"I had a wonderful time tonight, thank you for taking me out, Laxus," she said quietly, squeezing his hand.

"Thank you for coming out with me, Lucy, I know I haven't given you much reason to," he gave her hand a soft squeeze of his own.

They walked in companionable silence while Lucy swung their arms back and forth before she asked the question she was sure would ruin the night, "So how come you asked me out, tonight?"

"Cause I like you, I thought that much was obvious," he said, smiling slyly at her.

She stopped in her tracks.

"What?," he asked innocently before grabbing her face and planting a soft kiss on her lips.

When he lifted his head, her hand replaced his mouth. His face was crestfallen.

"No no!" she yelled and threw herself at him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her ear against his chest. His heart was beating erratically. "I was just surprised. I didn't hate it!"

Thunder rumbled in his chest as he laughed, "Well that's good at least, one less thing to worry about."

"One less thing?"

"You don't remember the loud mouth announcing you were going out with me tonight? You think people are just going to forget about that? Mira will probably have a painting of our future babies tomorrow."

A loud groan told him that _she _had forgotten about the incident. He only laughed at her. She broke away from him and started walking at the edge of the canal, wondering what it would be like at Fairy Tail the next day. In her reverie she failed to notice a rock in her path and slipped. Laxus arm snaked around her waist and pulled her close so she wouldn't fall into the water.

"We have to stop meeting like this," he teased, reminiscing on the first time he had to save her from the canal.

"Oh hush, you," she lifted her head up to stare into his eyes, "Why me? Why not Evergreen?" she asked suddenly.

He had a feeling the question would come up some time but he wasn't quite sure how to answer it yet. "Do you mind if we go inside before I answer? It's going to rain soon."

"Yes, yes of course," she mumbled. She hastily pulled out her key to unlock the door. Slowly leading him upstairs. She sat on a chair with her legs folded beneath her while he opted for the couch.

He stared at her for a minute before answering, "You…you're the only one who isn't afraid. Despite my demeanor and my past, our past, you still talk to me as you would Natsu, or Gray. Like I'm just another guild member. Not as Makarov's grandson, nor as a powerful wizard. More like an equal. Evergreen is my friend, and also into Elfman, but she has a hero worship attitude." He dropped his head, "I thought you were weak and not worth my time. I had a shitty attitude. The last time we talked you opened my eyes. I wanted to get back at you when you ended up just doing me another favor. How much power I wield doesn't affect the attitude I'm allowed to have."

He began getting nervous when she didn't say anything. The hair on his arms began to stand up as a result of a static buildup but then she left her chair and took up the exact position next to him on the couch. She went to rest her head against his shoulder but there was a crack in the air.

"Ouch!" she yelled and began rubbing her ear.

He had the decency to blush, "I was getting nervous, the static has a tendency to build up."

Despite how adorable he looked she still scowled, "Warn a girl next time, jeeze. I don't want that to be a regular occurrence." She began poking his shoulder and chest to assure there were no more surprises. Instead he laughed as he slid his arm over her shoulders and she leaned against him. He laid his head onto hers and began to really relax.

"Do you still think I'm weak?" she whispered.

"Not at all. You handled everything like a champ. That was easily an S-class mission that you had no prior training for. But you aren't leaving. You didn't seem to get discouraged about the outcome, you just took it in stride and kept moving. That's admirable."

"I'm going to still do my training exercises…I would never leave the guild, it's become my home. I've learned so much! There was no way I could have done it just with classes and on my own. The way I looked at how everything turned out I knew I did the right thing. I was just going to scout and call for help. I saw three wizards in there I knew I couldn't handle on my own but I also wasn't given all the facts so I was completely unprepared. Plus now I know how much I can really take."

He held her tightly against him as he brushed his lips on the top of her head, "I'll see if I can help out with training. Freed, Bicks, and Ever, too."

He could actually feel her smile against his chest, "I would like that a lot." She tried to stifle a yawn and she closed her eyes, only intending to rest. When he heard her even breaths he laughed to himself and very carefully moved from under her. He took her in his arms and laid her in bed. _She looks a lot better than the last time I had to do this. Ah, there goes the moonlight again. It's a different kind of light, not as harsh as the sun but reveals so much more. Here's hoping she has no nightmares. _He hastily wrote a note indicating she fell asleep and he would see her tomorrow before exiting her apartment. He jogged a few blocks away so he wouldn't wake her when he lightported home.

The morning sun coaxed Lucy from her happy, happy dreams. She slowly stretched out on the bed and wiggled her fingers and toes. _I actually went on a wonderful date last night. Who knew Laxus and his friends were actually entertaining. And that kiss, it felt like all my nerves were coming to life… I wonder if it's always like that. _She shook her head to keep from being distracted and went to take a shower.

Laxus stretched lazily on his bed and stared at the ceiling. _She has an infectious laugh. I can't believe that slime story really worked. I'll have to thank Bickslow for that. Probably Evergreen too for being so obsessed with her shoes. _He got up with a smile on his face. As soon as he finished getting ready he lightported to the guild.

Mist rolled in from the bathroom to her bedroom when she was finished with her shower. She noticed a note on her bedside table with her name on it.

_You fell asleep on me, didn't know I was that boring. You looked like you needed the rest so I didn't wake you. Sleep well, blondie, I'll see you tomorrow._

_L_

She smiled and twirled around in her robe with her heart practically beating out of her chest. Virgo and Leo appeared in front of her and she almost lost her balance.

"What are you guys doing here?" she yelled.

"We wanted to apologize. We couldn't be there for you the night of the attack and we haven't been able to check on you. Virgo had her hands full with her other master and she didn't have enough energy. I had to deal with a few things in the celestial realm. Nobody else was strong enough to get through. You have recovered remarkably fast though, the sky dragon slayer is talented at her craft."

She smiled sweetly at the spirits that had taken such good care of her over the years, "It's okay. It was…horrible. But it's okay now. Please don't beat yourselves up. I hope everything cleared up though, and you have less to worry about."

Leo nodded and grinned, "All back to normal."

"Good, go back and make sure your energy levels are super high. I'm going to be training again soon."

A laugh from Leo affirmed that he heard and he started to disappear it but she needed Virgo's help. "Virgo! Hey, can you help me with something?"

"Of course princess, what do you need?" Lucy outlined her idea and Virgo set to working, finishing up moments later. "Is that what you wanted?"

"YES! Perfect, thank you!" Lucy squealed before getting dressed and hurrying to the guild. She knew he would be there already.

Laxus did arrive before her and when he walked in the door almost all conversation stopped. He waved a friendly hand in greeting before walking over to sit with Bickslow.

"That story worked, she was in stitches."

"My babies came up with it,"

He knocked on Bickslow's visor, "They feed off your ideas, idiot."

His response was to stick out his tongue.

The lightning wizard laughed and crossed his arms, scanning the guild. He hadn't heard or smelled her but that didn't mean she wasn't there.

"Hey, Laxus, Bickslow," Mira walked over in greeting and handed each of them a beer.

"The hell, Mira? It's only 10 a.m.?" the blonde man questioned.

The barkeep only laugh and waved her hand, "It's in celebration, just enjoy."

The two shrugged and took a swig.

Laxus' eyes strayed toward the door when he saw it open and he spit his beer all over the table as he started choking. Bickslow pounded on his back between bouts of laughter. Lucy had walked in wearing a black shirt with a lightning bolt cut out of the stomach, showing a fair amount of skin, and trimmed in yellow.

"Guess the date went well, huh?" Bickslow was still laughing when Laxus tipped his chair over. After greeting her friends she walked over to the bench Laxus was occupying and slid next to him.

"Hey," she said breathlessly, like nothing was wrong.

"What the fuck are you wearing?" he demanded.

As soon she her eyes locked on his he knew he said the wrong thing, "Y-y-you don't like it?"

Bickslow had stopped laughing at this point and was waiting to see how Laxus would handle the situation. He knew he was inexperienced and Lucy was a powderkeg of emotion.

"No, I mean shit you look fantastic, I just… I only told you last night." He said weakly.

Sadness was wiped away quickly by anger, "Well, Laxus Dreyar, excuse me for wanting to show you I care since I can't get YOU something like flowers." She turned to try and walk away but he grabbed her arm. She tried to tug away but he spun her around and kissed her again. The same electricity went through her as before and she could hardly put together a sentence when he pulled away. It was just a simple kiss but it left her reeling.

"But..Us..Angry..What…" she trailed off

He chuckled and nudged her hip, "I think you'll get used to it eventually."

Her eyes were wide and sincere when she looked up at him, "I hope I don't." Her words had the same effect on his as his lips did on her. He was struck dumb.

Bickslow and his babies were miming throwing up so Lucy stretched her foot under the table and quickly flipped his chair over. Unbeknownst to them all conversation had died the second Lucy started talking to Laxus. The trio realized it and started looking around. Lucy's face turned bright red when she realized they were staring at her and she quickly ducked her head.

"Carry on, everybody. Last time I was here it wasn't a crime for somebody to kiss their girlfriend in public but I'll keep that in mind." Laxus yelled to everybody with a smile on his face. Gradually conversations went back to normal but Levy waggled her eyebrows at Lucy who stuck her tongue out in return.

"Um I have to take care of a few things." She quickly kissed Laxus' cheek and went over to recap her date.

"What the hell happened Lulu? SPILL!" Levy yelled.

"He picked me up, brought me some gorgeous flowers, and we went to dinner. He asked about my time with the guild since he wasn't around for most of it and I asked about some of the missions he had been on. He had some really funny stories. He has seriously changed from the person I met two years ago. Honestly, he is a perfect gentleman, sweeter than you'd think. He wants to change. Be nice."

Levy still looked unconvinced, "If you say so, then I'll give him a chance. If he hurts you though, there is a long line of people that would be all too happy to destroy him."

"It will be fine, I promise." She hugged her close before grabbing a drink from Mira and sitting with Laxus again. She wanted to get to know the rest of his friends.

Bickslow stared at Lucy as she walked away. His actions led Laxus to grab one of his dolls out of the air and throw it at his head but it bounced harmlessly off his mask.

"Quit staring at her," he growled.

"Calm down, I'm not the one who made her uncomfortable. Announcing to the whole guild like that, if she turned any redder you wouldn't be able to tell her apart from Titania's hair."

"But my hair is brown, Bicks, where are you getting these weird ideas," Evergreen had arrived and interrupted. Her eyes flicked to look for Erza and did a double take when she saw Lucy. "What the hell is she- oh…Laxus really? Ensnared by the buxom blonde? You old softie!"

Sometimes he deeply regretted telling them to treat him normally, "Can it, Ever. You better play nice if she comes over here."

"Like you need to tell me that? Being the only female around you buffoons has its downside."

With a drink in her shaking hand Lucy finally made it back to Laxus. She sat close to him and started bouncing her leg up and down.

"Hey, you don't have to be so nervous," he whispered into her ear as his hand landed on her knee as a cue for her to stop. She nodded shyly and started calming down. He was softly rubbing circles onto her leg with his thumb when Freed sat down as well.

"Go on any interesting jobs lately?" she asked the group before her.

"Well, the last one we went on was a lot of fun," Evergreen started. The three men had smiles on their faces and Bickslow was chuckling quietly with his dolls mimicking him. "Some man had a mansion that was larger than Magnolia. He said he lost his daughter hours ago and wouldn't come out when he called. Said he would give us a ten million jewel reward if we found her the first day and we would lose a million per day until she was with him again. Laxus sniffed her out in about an hour; she was hiding in an air duct and was sleeping. So, naturally, after we collected the reward we found an unused part of the house and stayed there for about a week. The mattress was so soft it was like sleeping on a cloud," she sighed wistfully.

Lucy was in a fit of giggles, "Really? That was an S-class mission?"

Evergreen shrugged, "It paid enough, he was worried we would be staying longer and not have enough food or something. Either way, it's going to my rent for the next two years."

The blonde felt Laxus rumbling quietly beside her, "What's so funny?"

Freed blushed a brilliant shade of red, "Well at one point we decided to explore a little bit. Evergreen spent the day looking for us."

The woman in question looked menacingly at her compatriots.

"What?" Bickslow shrugged, "you were just as happy that we found the pool and Jacuzzi."

They all began laughing again and Lucy felt much more comfortable.

"And you, Lucy? What was the most interesting mission you've been on? I know you've tagged along with Natsu while you still had classes," Freed asked politely.

She thought for a minute before answering, "Well the last one was pretty exciting I'd have to say," she wanted them to all know she really was okay, "but there was one I was watching with Team Natsu, the mage has some pretty potent fire power. Natsu, of course, ended up eating it before he knew what it did and he um… ended up shooting some pretty noxious blue flames out the rest of the night." I blushed, hoping I wouldn't have to explain any further.

The dolls were rolling around on the table as Bickslow fell out of his chair for the third time that day. Freed blushed, Evergreen giggled quietly, and Laxus was roaring with laughter. He ended up joining Bickslow on the floor.

"What I would have given to see matchstick fart blue fire. That is simply priceless." He wiped his eyes before sitting back down next to Lucy. "I hope you get some more stories like that."

Lucy grimaced in return, "I hope not, it smelled absolutely terrible. We had to tie him down to the top of the train we couldn't take it."

Laxus chuckled again and before even he knew what he was doing he quickly kissed her temple and resumed conversation. The rest of the men and Evergreen were startled but looked pleased. It was rare they saw him so carefree. A bright smile lit up the blonde's face, "Well, I'm off! I told Natsu I'd go on a job with him, Happy, and Gray. Probably Juvia. Erza hasn't come back from hers yet so it will be easy. I gotta get packing."

"Alright if you must. I'll walk you home," Laxus stood up as well.

"Hey now, I don't need an escort! Enjoy time with your friends I'll be back in a few days," she leaned down and kissed his nose, eliciting a huge smile from the formidable wizard.

"Just be careful," he admonished before she left.

"Always!" she waved goodbye and headed home.


	6. Chapter 6

Natsu was waiting for her when she walked in the door. Surprisingly, the room was still in pristine condition. Nothing was broken or singed. Even Happy was behaving himself. A pile of crumbs was absent beneath Natsu's chair so he didn't even raid her fridge. Where was this weird behavior coming from?

"I just need to pack some things to leave with Virgo then we can go. Is everything okay? You're not acting like yourself," she gave him a glance from the corner of her eyes before she started pawing through her drawers.

"Nothing. Everything's okay. It's just…you know, dragon senses? When they mate they go crazy. As much as I want to take a piece out of Laxus, I know I can beat him, if you mess with their mate they go…a little nuts."

Understanding bloomed in the blonde's eyes as she catalogued his behavior under a new characteristic. Cautious. Maybe there was hope for him yet. He then got bored of acting nice and began describing the job to her. The three of them (Happy being the third) would be aiding the guard in a town called Avondale. It was a mining town to the south with a massive payload of precious metal and gems that had to be taken the refinery.

"Should be an easy job, day long, but the pay is a million jewel, it'll take care of your rent, right?"

Lucy turned and smiled at the slayer before her. He was still her first friend and regardless of how little he did while they were in school, whenever she went along with them he always made sure she was safe first. He might act incredibly stupid sometimes but his heart was in the right place, as always. "Yeah, Natsu, that should cover it for a few months."

A huge grin lit up his face, "Good, let's get going!"

"We DO have to take the train, Natsu. Happy can't carry us both."

"Specially since you eat too much fish," the cat interjected.

A well placed punch knocked him from Natsu's shoulder, "Why don't you two fly over the train. You can land when Happy gets tired and then take off when he gets some energy back. Does that sound good?"

In lieu of answering he grabbed her wrist and Happy's tail and headed for the door. She threw her bag to the spirit waiting to take it, yelled a quick thanks, and concentrated on keeping up. Her clothes were sensible but her black pumps made it difficult. He kept up the pace through Magnolia until they reached the train station where Lucy purchased her ticket.

"Just follow the train, okay, Happy?" she said to the cat as he equipped himself with his magic wings.

"Aye, sir. Natsu doesn't eat as much fish so I should be able to carry him easier."

The cat barely dodged the kick she sent his way. Shaking her head she boarded the train and got comfortable. A trashy romance novel was all she needed and for once it would not be interrupted by sounds of motion sickness. Occasionally there was a thump on the roof when Happy took a rest but the journey seemed to take no time at all. Soon the bell rang and the announcer told the riders they were arriving at Avondale station.

Happy rolled Natsu from the top of the train before it set off again and the cat leapt down and landed on top of his back. _Some things never change_ she thought when Natsu was finally off the pavement. She supported him while he recovered from his very brief train ride and they headed towards the mining facility. It was set in a desert town and most of the residents were probably mine workers. The roads were well kept but sand covered just about everything. It wasn't hard to find the most opulent and pristine building that belonged to the mining corporation. The president of the company was the one who contracted them. The marble foyer echoed with the clacking of Lucy's shoes.

"Keep an eye on him. I need to figure out where we have to go." She approached the front desk where a woman with platinum blonde hair was tapping entries into a keyboard. Lucy cleared her throat to get the woman's attention, "Hi, we are wizards from Fairy Tail here to complete the escort request."

Stone grey eyes looked her up and down before a sneer appeared, "I'll call him and tell him you're here. No animals in the lobby."

Lucy took a deep breath to hold in her anger and asked Happy to wait outside.

"Why? Natsu still isn't feeling better," The cat stared down at his best friend sadly.

"The bitch at the counter won't let pets in, we are just going to be here for a little bit longer." She adjusted her shirt self-consciously. If she had any prior knowledge of the facility she would have dressed more professionally. Natsu finally revived himself from his sickened state and looked around for somebody to fight. The blonde hit him upside the head, "I need you to behave for this job, okay? The president of the company will be down soon." He slumped down in his seat.

"Are you the wizards from Fairy Tail?" A tall man in a suit and with a classically handsome face greeted the pair.

"Yes sir," she responded with a curtsy, "We are here to escort your payload from the mine to your factory for refinement."

He nodded, "Go to the mine, it's ten miles south. The head of operations will direct you where to go after that. Come here after and I will give you the reward. Please, hurry. Your presence is scaring away potential clientele." He retreated back to his office.

_Sounds just like my father. _Her bitter thoughts were chased away by Natsu, who was following the ceiling fan with his eyes. His head was spinning around just as fast as the contraption. It was her turn to grab his wrist and drag him out of the building. "We have to meet with the head of operations at the mine. We are going to have to take a car out there. Happy can fly you ahead and you can scout it out."

"Alright! Let's go, Happy!" The cat picked up the man but started in the wrong direction. A vein throbbed in Lucy's forehead. They had not even asked where the facility was.

"It's SOUTH, Happy!" she screamed at the pair who quickly turned around. A man in a dark blue jumpsuit began walking towards her from the building they had just vacated.

"Excuse me, are you a Fairy Tail wizard?"

She nodded and flashed her hand as proof.

"I'm supposed to take you to the mining headquarters, weren't there two of you?"

"My partner went ahead of me. He isn't great with transportation." He nodded knowingly and directed her towards a car that ran off lacrima. It was comfortable but they rode in silence. The journey from facility to mine was uneventful.

"Is this the path the cargo will be taking?" she asked her driver.

"I believe so, ma'am."

_That's good, _she was thought happily. _There's nowhere for anybody to hide. This will probably be an easy job for once! _Regardless of what she was thinking she still gave instructions to her spirits. First she held Virgo and Loke's keys. _Guys I don't know what kind of magic they will be using so I need you to be ready for anything, okay? If I can't summon anybody I need you guys to come over on your own._ Their keys heated up to let her know they understood. The rest she took up in her fist. _I know it's been a while but I might need you guys. Please be ready. _ All of her keys, except Aquarius of course, gave her the same response as the first two.

When the car rolled to a stop Natsu was bouncing around happily because for once he didn't have to get as violently ill as he normally did. Surprisingly he had already spoken to the head of the facility.

"We were just waiting on you, Lucy. We are ready to go. I'm going to fly over with Happy and keep an eye on things. You can rid in the middle of the cargo and watch things from there." He flew into the air before she could respond but she really didn't need to. He came up with a decent plan.

The cargo was piled on to mine carts with a driver at the front. He blew a whistle for others to get out of the way of the track while they started moving and all seemed okay. Lucy and Natsu kept scanning the sands around them ensuring there were no threats. Halfway through the journey both wizards made the mistake of relaxing. Twenty bodies rose out of the sand around them. Two used the sand to stretch across the front of the car to stop it. The conductor flew through the front window of the train and Lucy was propelled onto the cart in front of her. Immediately a sandstorm kicked up around them.

The sand wizards threw ropes around her that bound her magic. She used all of her strength to reach her keys. _Virgo! Leo!_ She screamed internally with the hopes they were still at the ready. A flash of light told her she was right. Virgo cut her bonds while Leo began to attack those surrounding her. Natsu was using his fire breath on wizards surrounding him but they fell and reformed faster than he could hit them. Lucy scanned through the fight around her while trying to think of a solution.

"Happy! How well can you maneuver while you're going mach speed?" she yelled to the cat.

"As good as normally," he flew down to land on her shoulder. His eyes were wide in excitement. "How fast do you wanna go, Lucy?!"

"No I need you to grab this rope and tie up as many of the wizards as you can. It binds magic so Natsu can fight them normally. If you get their hands try and get both of them okay? Aim for feet though so they don't know what's going on. Go tell Natsu then do it okay?"

"Aye, sir!" he sped toward the dragon slayer to tell him the plan. Lucy was using her whip to block attacks from wizards who had their attention diverted from her spirits. A few slashes reached her skin but weren't deep enough to take her out of the fight.

"Virgo, Loke, you can go, I have this under control." Neither spirit moved so she took things into her own hands. "Close, Gate of the Maiden, Gate of the Lion!" If she needed them again she would call but she didn't want them getting hurt and both looked like they were getting tired. It was like fighting in a dust storm, the wizards were using sand like Juvia used her water slicer. It was impossible to see and getting harder to dodge each one of them. Lucy lashed out with her whip to grab the wrist of the nearest wizard and tugged him forward to smash her elbow into his forehead. He crumpled to the ground unconscious.

The air seemed to clear up a little bit so Happy must have taken out a few mages. Lucy backed up until she felt the iron of the rail cart behind her. Natsu alighted next to her.

"That was good thinking, Lucy. I think Happy managed to get ten or so into a group and I took them out."

"I just got one, I can't see anything, and I don't know if Virgo or Loke took anybody down."

"I think I saw them take down five, but why isn't this storm going away?"

She gulped, "One of them must be more powerful than we thought. Is there any rope left from Happy?"

Natsu shook his head no as he dashed forward into the storm, "Stay with the cart or try and get it out of here."

"Gate of the Scorpion, Scorpio!"

"Well, this is my kind of weather," he remarked casually.

"I need you to launch some sand that way to get us more momentum," she pointed the direction they had just come from, "we have to get out of this storm or we are going to lose all the cargo. I have to go help Natsu but I need you to stay with the carts incase somebody tries to take anything, I'll know if something happened, can you do that?"

"I thought I was supposed to fight?"

"I need you here, I won't risk you going in there when _I_ don't even know what's going on." She ran towards the maelstrom of sand while he stood guard. She just gave her spirits one more reason to be in awe. Any other wizard would send the spirits in.

She ran full tilt until she collided with a body whose shout indicated it wasn't Natsu. Lashing out with fists and hands she hit until the person went limp and moved on to her next target. A darker blur caught her eye and the tip of her whip caught the person around the legs and she tugged hard. Her fist collided with the back of his head before he hit the ground. His aura told her that was the powerful mage. The wind died down and the storm stopped. Natsu was panting heavily facing two more wizards side by side, the rest were taken care of. The blonde used her last surge of energy to wrap her whip around the neck of the furthest one from her and pull him into his partner. A thunk resounded as their heads smashed together; Natsu threw his head back and laughed.

"That was awesome, Lucy!" he yelled and threw his arm over her shoulder, retracting it immediately when she winced. Both of them were covered in small and large cuts from the fight and the sandstorm.

"Ugh, this is going to sting so much," she groaned at the thought of taking a bath, something she would usually enjoy. Scorpio's key heated at her hip as she silently sent him back.

"Hey, where's Happy?" Natsu looked around with worry.

"Oh no.." I saw the blue cat half covered in sand. Natsu rushed over and picked him up.

"Happy.." his voice broke as he held the cat close.

"GOTCHA!" the fleabag sprung up from his arms, spraying Natsu with sand. The man got up and tried to catch him but he had flown far out of reach.

The celestial wizard could only shake her head. Laying further away was the driver, he got up slowly and rubbed his head. Surprisingly he assumed his driving position after walking to the train.

"Get on, I want to get back to headquarters. And a doctor."

Natsu climbed on quickly and held out his hand for Lucy who followed suit. The dragon slayer didn't get too sick during the short journey so Happy dealt with him. The building was still as pristine but this time around Lucy's shirt was now in tatters. The receptionist looked horrified at her appearance and quickly dialed the number for the president. The wizard was too tired to care anymore.

"The train is at the site, all the cargo is safe. Twenty wizards out in the sands that need to be rounded up, call the magic council or something."

The receptionist stared in distaste at the wizard hoping against hope the president would hurry up with his appointment and get the riff raff out of the lobby. It was fifteen agonizing minutes later before the president emerged from his office with his client. Lucy looked up and froze. The client shook hands with the president and looked down into the vestibule.

"Lucy?" her father's mouth dropped in shock.


End file.
